Kodak Alaris in Trouble? Shuts Down Major Manufacturing Plant in UK

[iamzip]

This does not sound good...

http://petapixel.com/2016/04/13/kodak-alaris-trouble-shuts-manufacturing-plant-uk/

 

[Platinum RF]

I have not used color negative for many years since I cannot find local store to process it. Shoot only black/white. Film is getting expensive, soon or late will be too expensive to buy.

 

[zauhar]

I have not used color negative for many years since I cannot find local store to process it. Shoot only black/white. Film is getting expensive, soon or late will be too expensive to buy.

My quick read of the article suggests that only color PAPER is made at the plant. Looking at B & H, the only color Kodak paper they sell comes in big rolls, I guess for automatic processing machines?

Randy

 

[Hogarth Ferguson]

Well, according to the article, it does not do anything with actual film, which is good. Hopefully it is just restructuring and nothing more.

 

[iamzip]

Yes, but the statement from 2013 said that that particular plant was "vital to the future of the company." Even if no film is produced there, I can't believe that it would have no effect on the company as a whole.

 

[zauhar]

Yes, but the statement from 2013 said that that particular plant was "vital to the future of the company." Even if no film is produced there, I can't believe that it would have no effect on the company as a whole.

I bet the plant produced the giant rolls of paper (11" X 300', really?!) which seems to be the only Kodak color negative paper that B & H sells; Freestyle does not sell any Kodak color paper.

Again, I assume that these big rolls are used in commercial printing (although I honestly don't know what kind!)

Randy

EDIT: Looking at the Alaris site, it looks indeed like these giant-size rolls are meant for minilabs, and displays made using optical printing. How much demand is there for that? I thought that the drug stores now print your photos from a digital file. Is it still optical process?

 

[papaki]

Anything like that is bad news for film photography. The more the merrier, even if it is about paper for auto printing machines.

 

[tonyc]

I bet the plant produced the giant rolls of paper (11" X 300', really?!) which seems to be the only Kodak color negative paper that B & H sells; Freestyle does not sell any Kodak color paper.

Again, I assume that these big rolls are used in commercial printing (although I honestly don't know what kind!)

Randy

EDIT: Looking at the Alaris site, it looks indeed like these giant-size rolls are meant for minilabs, and displays made using optical printing. How much demand is there for that? I thought that the drug stores now print your photos from a digital file. Is it still optical process?

Drug stores have printed from digital scans of film and digital files from
digicams for more than 10years.
Everything they print, except the self serve kiosk
5min prints are on RA4 paper and will be for the foreseeable future.

-TC

 

[sevo]

This is far from the end of CN paper - Kodak was a minor player in the past twenty years, after Fujifilm gained domination of both the printer market and its supplies. But the concentration process it implies is a bit scary, as it means even less backups if Fuji pulls the plug.

 

[Skiff]

Nothing much to worry about. I asked the biggest European Kodak paper distributor and they said all papers are kept in production.
The paper is now completely made by Carestream (former Kodak Health) in their plant in Windsor, Colorado (Kodak paper was made in this factory before, it is not new at all for them).
Here are the details:

http://www.reporterherald.com/busin.../former-kodak-plant-windsor-picks-up-contract

Print your color photographs on real silver-halide paper!
Be it from digital files, color negative film or color reversal film (that even often looks best).
Print it on Kodak RA-4 paper and Fuji RA-4 paper.
And then silver-halide paper will have a sustainable future.

 

[charjohncarter]

My Costco which does not use Kodak paper, is slow when it comes to prints. Staff is down to two or three, they are refilling printer cartridges and other non-printing services. People are not requesting prints.

Besides there better places to do business than the E-zone.

 

[Skiff]

In Europe alone billions of prints on RA-4 paper are made every year. All the big mass volume labs are doing it. The data from the market leader is published quarterly.

For my local small professional lab RA-4 prints are the real cash-cow. They are making hundreds of it daily, on some days even thousands of it. They are using Kodak Endura paper.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

So another 250 on the dole.
FWIW that's 8%+ of their workforce.

Chris