The printing industry is bouncing back from the Covid year with both Kodak and Fuji pointing to increases in plate volumes and ink sales during their most recent quarterly financial results.
This resulted in a $78 million revenue improvement to $291 million in Kodak’s Q2, amounting to a strong second quarter performance, according to CEO Jim Continenza. This, he says, reflects the restructuring and simplification that has taken place over the last two years. “The result is improved performance in all our businesses and a solid foundation,” he says.
There is also the effect of Covid to take into account. In the equivalent quarter in 2020, countries around the world were in lockdown and had frozen much economic activity to slow progress of the virus. This year restrictions have been eased to avoid irreparable damage to economies.
For Kodak this amounts to an 84% improvement in volumes of its Sonora plates and a 50% increase in annuity revenues for Prosper, mostly from growing ink volumes. In a comparison of the first six months of 2021 and 2020, where the first three months were largely unaffected by Covid, volumes for Sonora are up 38% and for Prosper by 28%.
Fujifilm has noted the same effect. Its first quarter report says that medical systems have been the star performer in a 27% increase in revenues. There has been reorganisation in the businesses in the print sector: what was document solutions is now business innovation, with some interests transferred to a graphic communications sector, which also includes plates, printheads and inkjet ink inside the company’s Materials business.
There are no detailed figures released but a comment that the release of the Superia ZX process-free plate has helped increase sales of litho plates while sales of inkjet ink have also increased.
The commercial print sector proved to be the biggest winner of the global reawakening for Kodak. Revenues from the analogue side of print increased in Q2 to $169 million, from $119 million in 2020. Digital print revenues rose to $62 million ($52 million) with the advanced materials and chemistry arm growing to $54 million ($38 million).
The improvement was also reflected at the operating income level. In the quarter it reported operating Ebitda of $6 million compared to an operating loss of $7 million. The turnaround was also noted at the six month point with a $28 million improvement.
The company points to its cash balanced, which after six months of the financial year, stands at $395 million, a $199 million improvement from the position at the end of 2020.
