Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY, USA, has named Xpedx its primary US authorized reseller for Kodak’s suite of commercial prepress products. Concurrently, it has informed Pitman Company, its current distribitor, that it will terminate the relationship.

“Kodak is expanding its relationship with Xpedx because we believe it will support the best interests of our customers,” saus Don Whaley, director, channel and key account development for Kodak North America. “Our top priority is to ensure that our customers have steady, seamless access to Kodak’s unmatched product portfolio, and Xpedx is the best national partner to deliver speed and excellence on a local level.” Xpedx, which has operations throughout North America, is based in Loveland, OH, USA.

Kodak has had a distribution arrangement with Pitman Company, Totowa, NJ, USA., but has notified Pitman that it is terminating Pitman’s right to distribute all Kodak products. The termination will take effect October 5.

“We have already begun working with our customers to ensure a smooth transition to an alternative source of supply,” says Vic Stalam, Director, Commercial Sales, Kodak, North America.

Pitman responded to Kodak’s announcement by issuing a statement saying that it “affirms its commitment to its customer base in response to Kodak’s announcement about distribution realignment. Servicing customers remains Pitman’s number one focus. In recent years, Pitman’s product offerings have extended beyond conventional prepress solutions, which continue to become a smaller portion of its current business. The company has diversified its portfolio and invested in key growth areas such as packaging, pressroom products and industrial inkjet solutions including inks and media. This diversification is in direct response to the ever changing and evolving graphics communications industry.”

According to Pitman’s Chairman of the Board, Paul F. Schmidt Jr., “Today our diverse portfolio helps our customers to run profitable businesses. This has been our goal for over 100 years and remains our main focus today. For our prepress customers we are aligned with Agfa Graphics to provide its award-winning product portfolio. Agfa recently invested to upgrade its Branchburg, NJ, plate manufacturing facility as well as its global manufacturing. Therefore it has the additional capacity and capability to support Pitman and any additional increases in demand.We are working to make certain our customer needs are addressed in the manner they have come to rely on and expect from Pitman.”