Kodak has revealed Mercury Print Productions, based in Rochester in New York, USA, as the first customer for its Prosper 7000 single pass inkjet press. This is currently the fastest inkjet press, running at up to 410mpm and producing up to 239 million A4 pages in a month.
Mercury has been using Kodak Prosper systems since 2011 and will use the new 7000 press to produce a range of work including books, direct mail and short to medium run packaging.
John Place, CEO of Mercury Print Productions, explained: “Our primary goal with this investment is to enhance our production capabilities, improve efficiency, and offer our customers a broader range of printing options. We aim to provide faster turnaround times, greater substrate flexibility and capabilities, and consistent print quality across various substrates.
“We needed another press as we have experienced a significant increase in demand for digitally printed products as our customers continue to look for solutions that offer offset quality while allowing for the flexibility that inkjet provides. It enables our customers to order what they need, when they need it.”
In addition to this, Kodak has also released its latest set of figures for its third quarter, which ended October 2023. The company’s revenue dropped $20 million year on year down to $269 million, which is a seven percent fall. Despite this the gross profit rose from $43 million in Q3 2022 to $50 million this year, while the gross profit as a percentage rose from 15 percent to 19 percent. However, net income according to Generally Agreed Accounting Practices, stayed flat at $2 million.
Kodak splits its reporting into three segments. The Advanced Materials and Chemicals segment saw an improvement in its figures with its revenues up from $58 million to $64 million dollar, which translated into operational Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation of $3 million last year, up to $4 million for Q3 this year.
The much smaller brand licensing segment recorded an increase from $3 million in revenue and EBITDA last year to $4 million this year.
However, the picture is less rosy in the larger Print division, which saw its revenues drop from $224 million for Q3 last year to $196 million this year across all regions. Despite this, the EBITDA figure rose from $1 million in 2022 to $4 million this year.
Jim Continenza, Kodak’s Executive Chairman and CEO, explained: “Our investments in growth initiatives in our Advanced Materials & Chemicals group have resulted in increasing contributions from those businesses, and our investments in print have resulted in the introduction of groundbreaking inkjet presses capable of replacing offset technology. I’m extremely proud of our remarkable ability to build a strong foundation and continue our momentum in the face of unprecedented headwinds, and I’d like to thank our employees for their hard work and resilience and our customers for their loyalty and support during this period.”
That said, the company did increase its cash balance to $246 million. David Bullwinkle, Kodak’s CFO, stated: “For the nine-months ended September 30, 2023, cash increased $29 million, compared with a decrease of $146 million in the prior-year period, an improvement of $175 million in cash flow.
Continenza continued: “Kodak continued to execute its long-term plan and deliver strong results in the third quarter despite ongoing, extraordinary challenges including inflation, high interest rates, bank failures, labor shortages and now a new war.”
He added: “As business conditions continued to worsen, we continued to improve our performance, adapting to circumstances never encountered before and making the changes necessary to deliver increases in gross profit and Operational EBITDA year over year for the fourth consecutive quarter. Through it all, we have continued to focus on driving operational efficiency and smart revenue and investing in initiatives that leverage our strengths as an industrial manufacturer.”
You can find further details from kodak.com.
Leave a Reply