Kodak will meet 2015 goals, says Jeff Clarke
Chief executive of Kodak, Jeff Clarke, said that the firm had reported significant growth in the sales of key graphics arts products and also reduced its losses.
10 Aug 2015 | 2044 Views | By PrintWeek India
As per the company press release, sales were down 13% to USD 458m in the period to 30 June. Kodak said sales were essentially flat, stripping out the currency impact, a one-off intellectual property gain last year, and the effects of the legacy consumer inkjet business.
The net loss was reduced to USD 23m from USD 62m.
Turnover at its Print Systems division was down 12% to USD 282m, while EBITDA was flat at USD 20m. Kodak said volumes of its Sonora process-free plates increased by 66% and the number of customers grew by 19% to more than 2,700.
EBITDA losses at the inkjet wing were reduced by USD 7m to USD 5m. Revenues from Kodak’s Prosper inkjet presses jumped by 23%, and the number of pages produced grew by 11%. It installed five Prosper systems in the quarter, taking the total installs for the first half of the year to 10.
Clarke said Kodak was also enjoying “a very strong year” with inkjet imprinting systems.
Sales at the Micro 3D printing and packaging operation were up 3% to USD 34m, and it went from breakeven to EBITDA of USD 4m. The division installed a further 21 Flexcel NX flexo platemaking systems, taking the installed base to 441. Flexcel NX plate volumes grew by 39%.
Software and solutions posted flat sales of USD 27m and went from breakeven to operational EBITDA of USD one million.
Sales declined by 24% to USD 66m at the consumer inkjet cartridge and motion film operation. EBITDA there slumped by 46% to USD 8m.
The Intellectual Property Solutions division, which includes the costs for corporate R&D, had zero sales (2014: USD 9m) and made an EBITDA loss of USD 7m. Revenues from the Eastman Business Park were flat at $4m, and it made EBITDA of USD 2m (2014: zero).
Clarke also said the firm was on track to meet its financial goals for the full year, when it expects to post sales of between USD1.8bn to USD2bn. “I’m pleased with our Q2 operating performance. Kodak’s performance is non-linear and heavily weighted to the second half of the year,” he added.
He described Sonora, Flexcel, Prosper and the future prospects for Micro 3D printing as "four growth engines."
Of the four growth engines mentioned by Jeff Clarke in his statement, Kodak will be heading into the Wan Ifra India show in September with two – Sonora and Prosper – at the Kodak booth (Hall No. 5, Booth #401). A Kodak official mentioned that, "One of our customers will also talk about his experience with these Kodak solutions in a case-study, which will be covered during the Printing Summit of Wan-Ifra."