This afternoon I was trawling through an auction site as I need to buy a truck and came across a KODAK Solar inverter. This took me by surprise as I had no idea they were still in existence as we all knew their business was done when the digital camera came into existence. No more rolls of film which was their core business and they were one business that was hit by technology big time. It was not that long ago that they were everywhere and highlights how things can change so fast.
Kodak had a dominant world wide market share of camera film products and image services which was printing out your photographs. I am sure many of you still remember these machines as they were everywhere. In 1996 the Kodak company had a turnover of $16 Billion which is the equivalent of around $32 billion in todays value. In 1999 the company recorded their biggest profit of $2.5 billion and again is worth $5 billion today.
Kodak was so big they even had drive thru film processing stores.
Kodak is a prime example of why you have to stay ahead of market trends which includes new technology because no business is guaranteed forever and you need to adjust accordingly. In their case they needed to change completely and head in another direction which they did not do quick enough. That huge profit then went belly up with the digital camera now being part of the cell phones. In 2012 the Kodak Company filed for bankruptcy which showed their assets being worth way less than their debts to the tune of $1.75 billion.
This triggered a restructuring and today Kodak is involved in printing by offering large scale commercial printers and the consumables they require like oils and inks. They also are involved in digital printing solutions and still produce film for film studios.
Financially as a company they are nowhere near where they used to be and last year showed a profit of $46 million which is better than where they were 13 years ago deep in the red.
This made no real sense when I saw the solar inverter with the Kodak brand name and after reading up it turns out they also offer brand licensing by selling their brand name to third parties. The Kodak name most people do know or have heard of it and I guess some Chinese solar manufacturer decided to do a Kodak range using their name.
I know there are some other companies who do a similar type brand names service like Phillips. Phillips used to be a very big name in home electronics and especially televisions back in the day and now they concentrate on healthcare machines for clinics and hospitals. You can still see the odd Phillips television around, but these are companies using their brand name and are not exactly Phillips products. There is a big electronics manufacturer in Poland who has the rights to their name these days. I wish I knew this information 20 years ago as I could have used Phillips for my imported television business as the name would have been current in peoples minds as a trusted brand.
Phillips changed their business model when they saw they could not compete with LG Electronics and Samsung and remaining as a market leader against those two would take a fortune of investment. If you do not control the led screen manufacturing process then you have no chance and there are only 3 suppliers with Samsung, Sony and LG being the 3. That may have changed now, but this was the case back in the early 2000's.
Phillips was also involved with cassette tapes like a company called TDK and they swilled quickly and yes they are still a going concern. They manufacture and develop electronic components and are big into power supplies. TDK unlike Kodak saw where the future was heading and changed course and why they are still around.
I think it is interesting to see how companies survive technology breakthroughs and how they have to adapt or die. Nokia is another example and there are just so many examples that companies have faced serious challenges at some point and have somehow come through and survived to fight another day.