Eastman Kodak chairman and chief executive Dan Carp said the "new" Kodak's greater focus and broader product line-up set it in good stead to be a major player in the market. "Our customers tell us we can compete," Carp said.
He added that the Graphic Communications Group formed through its four divisions - NexPress, Kodak Encad (wide-format), Kodak Versamark (formerly Scitex Digital Printing), and its joint venture with Sun Chemical, Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG) - already had $2bn sales but that the markets they served had a total revenue of $17bn.
One of the rumours circulating at Drupa centres around a potential tie-up between Kodak and Creo, but Carp said that Kodak had no immediate plans for further acquistions in the sector following its recent buyouts of Scitex Digital Printing and the NexPress operations. Instead it would be focusing on integrating the businesses it had.
"We don't don't want to disrupt the momentum that they [the businesses] have," Carp said. "We will be very careful. If you realise the synergies too fast you can kill the business."
It is not yet clear whether KPG, which has just signed a distribution deal with Canon for its CLC 1100, 5100 and some wide-format printers, will sell the NexPress. KPG chief executive Jeff Jacobson joked: "It depends what margin they [Kodak] gives us on it."
Carp said KPG operated independently and it would decide itself whether it wanted to distribute the press.
"The only way [an independent joint venture] really works is if they sell what they really want to sell. If you make them sell what you want them to sell, you turn them into a pretzel and they fail," Carp said. "Our job is to give them products they want."
Carp sad that Kodak's significant R&D investment - its budget is around $830m - would lead to more products being added to its porfolio over time. "The Kodak brand carries a knowledge of high technology and a knowledge of what makes a good business," Carp added. "And in this business it's really important to have a high ethical value and I think the Kodak company carries that."
Story by Lauretta Roberts at Drupa
