Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I have to agree with Ted. Every year Kodak downsizes another 6000 to 20000 employees as their business evaporates. Fifteen years ago they pissed off all the small dealers (paper and chemistry) by not selling to them directly, it wasn't efficient. All the small guys went to Agfa and Konica primarily. Then they didn't bend over backwards to keep Wal-Mart and that huge market. To grow the business back the brilliant strategists at Kodak pissed off the largest photographic retailer (Ritz) by sucking up to Ritz's largest competitor, Wolf. So Ritz switches to Fuji paper and chemistry and by the way pushes Fuji film. Sometime about ten years ago, Kodak filed an anti-dumping suit against Fuji to stop them from selling paper and chemistry from Holland. The management at Fuji took it personally and built a giant complex in the Carolina's just so they could sell in the US at any price they cared to. It gets even better, to make their bottom line look better, Kodak chokes Wolf by dumping Fox Photo on them. Wolf goes bankrupt as a result and who buys the chain out of bankruptcy for a song? Ritz takes over Wolf and promptly switches that business to Fuji. I could go on about how many billion dollars Kodak has dropped on digital. They have an OK medium format back and a dismal line of consumer cameras. Oh, and did I mention that Kodak pays Fuji a royalty for every disposable camera that Kodak sells? But maybe the film business in China will grow fast enough to save them. Don dorysrus@mindspring.com Hi Mehrdad: Interesting point-of-view. I hadn't considered that. The lead item in the article was pointing towards loss of revenues from the sale of film and paper. Ted > Ted, this has nothing to do with film vs. digital. This is gross > mismanagement, lack of leadership and a complete lack of vision. > > --------------------------------------------------- > regards, mehrdad - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html