Eastman Kodak Company hosted an event highlighting its Graphic Communications Group (GCG) in Rochester, NY, USA in early February. Vic Stalam, general manager at Kodak’s GCG, explained the company’s mission: “We hope that Kodak packaging solutions help customers deliver high-impact packaging and accurate brand colors — across all substrates, through any print process, anywhere in the world.” He said Kodak also wants to “help customers expand businesses, make them faster, more efficient, more productive, and more profitable.” Stalam said that Kodak hopes to be the only company that offers all types of printing (flexo, offset and digital) to its customers.
Antonio Perez, chairman and CEO of Kodak, explained the restructuring of the company and how it is trying to move from more traditional film technology into digital. Carl Gustin, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of Kodak, talked about a slight change in the logo to a sleeker, more modern representation and showed the new company commercials.
Jim Langley, president of the GCG, talked about how the company acquired several others to build the GCG business, including Encad, Kodak Versamark, NEXPRESS, Kodak Commercial Imaging Group, Kodak Polychrome, and Creo. Laura Ryan, regional marketing manager for the GCG in the US and Canada, explained the packaging opportunities Kodak offers to customers. She said the key areas that impact business are quality, speed, color accuracy, savings, and business growth.
Kodak has Unified Workflow solutions for the packaging market that use traditional printing techniques (offset and flexo) and digital technologies to deliver greater automation and integrate business systems. The company provides computer to plate (CTP) devices, including the ThermoFlex CTP platesetter, which is a narrow hybrid flexo-offset device ideal for narrow web printers and trade shops. Kodak offers the Approval NX digital color imaging system, which is used for color proofing. The company has several screening solutions as well, including the HyperFlex resolution enhancement software, MaxTone hybrid screening software, Spotless printing software, and Staccato screening software.
At the end of the event, attendees were taken on a tour of Flower City Printing Inc., a large format printer in the US that uses nine sheetfed presses and is also located in Rochester, NY. The company serves retail product groups and provides product folding cartons and promotional materials. The plant uses three different Kodak products: the Approval XP4 digital halftone proofing system, Sword thermal printing plates and the TrendSetter 5067 CTP platesetter. In