It would be easy to relegate the
#Kodak brand to the scrap heap of once major companies that are now forgotten, like Pan Am World Airways and Blockbuster.
But Kodak still exists, and it’s actually a pretty active company. It’s not just their brand licensing; the trademark yellow and red K adorns all sorts of apparel and other lifestyle merchandise in foreign countries, and brought in about $4 million in the first quarter of this year. Kodak’s high-quality film and printing is still its top-grossing business, but it’s also pivoting into new areas that use its core competencies.
The Kodak of today and the future, CEO Jim Continenza told Forbes, is a B2B company specializing in chemicals, materials handling and manufacturing. In May, Kodak announced it was working on a new $20 million plant in Rochester, New York making chemicals for the pharmaceutical industry.
“That’s a hard transition for people to accept,” he said. “You don’t get to go on the race cars, all those great things don’...