Farewell Kodak?

By Jessica Manley

The company who made photography possible for the masses at the dawn of the 20th century with a little, simple box called the Kodakbrownie camera has filed for bankruptcy this past Thursday. The 131 year old pioneer film company, Kodak, may have lost the battle with the rapidly advancing digital technology market. Speculations began to swirl in late September when Kodak hired Jones Day, to help the company with a possible financial turnaround. This move was the first red flag of trouble for the corporation, sending signals of the companies impending bankruptcy. This chapter 11 filing has left current employees and there families preparing for layoffs, past employees worrying about pension and health care coverage, as well as large stockholders preparing for the financial hit.

Kodak’s bankruptcy will hit hard for Western New York where Kodak currently, according to 2012 figures, employs approximately 7000 people at its Rochester facility.  Rochester New York is tribute to the Eastman Kodak legacy with the name prominently gracing many of the communities’ establishments; The Eastman School of Music, Kodak Hall at Eastman Theater at the University of Rochester, and the Eastman Institute of Oral Health.  All proudly standing as a tribute to a company and its founder, George Eastman, who has been described as a vital part of the community for 130 years.  In recent years with digital imaging crippling its film business, Kodak closed 13 factories and 130 photo laboratories, and has cut 47,000 employees since 2003.

Although the future of  the once thriving company may look bleak, a glimmer of hope comes from Citigroup, who has offered to provide Kodak with $950 million to allow the company to run as normal as possible, continuing to pay employees to work during the bankruptcy. The hopeful company has set its goal to double its size by 2013, potentially raking in nearly $2 billion dollars if their plans materialize. All hope lies on the companies’ bankruptcy enabling Kodak to sell off assets to acquire much needed revenue. The capital will enable the company to create a large digital printer base with high capacity users. The strategy is then to eventually turn a profit from service and ink sales in the future. They are also banking on additional profits from software, as well as traditional film, disposable cameras, darkroom chemicals, and photographic paper.

Kodak’s aspires to eradicate all current debt, keep many employee jobs secure and begin with a clean start as a more successful digital printing company.

Hopefully this is just a bump in road for this iconic company whose hopes are simply to reorganize as a smaller corporation with less overwhelming debt and a viable future.