Kodak back on Philippine soil
Posted on November 5th, 2009
After two years of absence, with only its distributors maintaining their presence in the country, Kodak is making a grand comeback on Philippines shores. Kodak Philippines Ltd. is reopening its office here. According to country businesses manager for retail printing Cathy Pacia, the company feels it is the right to reinstate its presence in the Philippines as it keep pace with the growing local imaging sector.
Pacia said Kodak now sees greater opportunity in the Philippine market to grow both the digital and traditional aspects of its business. “We are n exciting times when digital technology has inspired Kodak worldwide to grow by leaps and bounds with product offerings. Kodak has indeed done a good balancing act, aggressively promoting our digital imaging portfolio, while preserving our traditional film and analog camera business,” she added.
Kodak Philippines close its office in May 2007 and just maintained the distributor model for the bulk of its business, which included the consumer digital and film and photo-finishing groups. Later on, Techtrends Corp. was tapped by the company to represent Kodak parent firm Eastman Kodak Co. in the Philippines.
Techtrends also owned the Kodak Express one-stop digital shop franchise, which has a nationwide network of more than 350 stores, aside from its sub-distributorship agreements with different outlets in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
With the development of technology, and more consumers shifting to digital photography, the traditional photo printing business suffered a setback in previous years.
This time, however, Kodak felt that industry was again poised for growth. With its return to the Philippine soil, the company would coordinate with its marketing and promotional activities with authorized distributors led by Techtrends.
Kodak Philippines country business manager for digital capture and devices Anna Cabanos said, “Kodak has brought back its Philippine office to ensure that the Filipinos are always kept abreast of the latest exciting offerings from Kodak.”
Kodak believes that while consumers are hooked on digital photography, they now found ways to enhance and print their digital photos, instead of just storing these in their computers or on CDs. And this is where the company comes in. Kodak offers a wider range of printing options, including the photo book and photo mosaic.
