Newly remade Kodak sees big opportunity in Asia region

It’s a “new” Kodak, which has successfully emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, said Lois Lebegue, managing director, Asia Pacific Region, Eastman Kodak Company, in an interaction with PrintWeek India.

19 Sep 2013 | By PrintWeek India

The newly remade Kodak’s business markets will include packaging, functional printing, graphic communications and professional services and according to Lebegue, Kodak has emerged as a technology company. “Our R&D, our people, our manufacturing capacities are totally focussing on commercial imaging.”
 
Kodak now has products and manufacturing in 10 countries. Its commercial imaging products are available in more than 150 countries. “Globally, we have 25,000 customers and more than 5,000 customers in Asia alone,” said Lebegue. 
 
The world print market is estimated to be USD 455-billion, Kodak’s share being USD 2.7-billion of which around 28% comes from the Asia-Pacific region. “Emerging markets, Asia in particular, offers big opportunity for Kodak,” said Lebegue, explaining that almost half of the world’s netizens are in Asia, which is an opportunity for Kodak, particularly its functional printing segment, which includes producing touch screen for smartphones using Kodak’s SquareSpot technology.
 
“On one hand the challenge is, people are reading on the internet using their mobile devices, iPads etc, which is creating some pressure on the paper, for example newspapers, books, magazines etc. but on the other hand, if we talk about our capacity to print-on-demand, we are balancing both the sides nicely in our business.”
 
Lebegue also sees Internet usage in Asia region as an opportunity for the packaging segment. He said, “In China alone, we have 160-million people using Internet to buy products. We have an opportunity here because all these products need to be packaged.”
 
Within the print market, there are segments which are growing at a different pace. Lebegue said, “The number of pages into digital print is growing very fast. Packaging is growing and will reach USD 300-billion, while  functional printing market, which is at its start will be USD 50-billion market by 2015.”
 
All these number offer great opportunity for Kodak. “The good thing is we have a big cash generating business with our plates. We have a strong position in the market which is stable and is still growing and emerging. We have strong product portfolio. We have safe manufacturing capacity. At the same time our business of digital and packaging is growing and is in a good position,” concluded Lebegue.