If you haven’t heard already, just before the new year Kodak announced a major price rise that will be effecting all emulsions. This is much larger than the usual annual 5% price increase and isn’t consistent among all films. Some have increased by 15% and some by over 30%. We thought we’d give a little write up to keep you all in the loop
Why?
In short, there has been a such a massive surge in demand that the limited production lines that are open currently are at max capacity. They are needing to expand these. In addition to this there is an unprecedented amount of back orders at the moment. They will not be able to fulfill these at the current price due to raw material costs going up, as it is an increase more than they can absorb. This increase has been passed onto the distributors worldwide, so everyone is affected. The full statement is below
“From Kodak Alaris – 2020 Film Price Increase2019 has been exceptional year for film, Kodak Alaris has seen increasing demand for film with new interest in traditional photography growing and a decline in the volume of film our key competitor has released to the market. Our market share has grown and levels of positivity towards shooting film not seen for many years has returned. These changes have also come with some problems, in recent years film supply has only just kept pace with market demand during the peak season but this year the increased demand has resulted in the highest level of Kodak Alaris film sales for some years leading to supply issues for most of our film lines. We have had to prioritise production of the most important film types, for example Professional film which is critical to many Professional Photographers. Overall we have seen the level of customer back orders increase to an unprecedented level, we understand this creates a difficult issue for our customers and end users but film production has been limited by a finite supply of one of the key components used to produce film.Kodak Alaris’s film supply comes from a single dedicated supplier, we are beholden to this supplier for all the film we sell across the world. Our supplier has recognised the increased demand for film and started to initiate plans to increase their volume capacity. A large ongoing financial investment has been made to increase production capacity but unfortunately the benefits of this investment will not be realised until much later in 2020, with some additional benefits being delivered in 2021.As the level of customer orders has increased every step has been taken to supply film as promptly as possible to our customers, with nearly all film and the components needed to produce film being air shipped around the world. These actions have come with a fiscal cost and despite our and our suppliers best efforts we have not been able to keep up with demand resulting in the extraordinary level of customer back orders we now have.Partly due to the investment cost related to increasing film capacity and other increases in operational costs our film supplier has passed on a significant price increase to us for all film products. This price increase is far bigger than Kodak Alaris can absorb and we are forced to announce a price increase will be made all of our customers across the world from the 1st January 2020.Kodak Alaris’s Management Team have agreed to absorb some of the price increase but we cannot absorb all of the price increase, therefore a significant increase will still be passed on to all our customers.”
How much?
When:
The price rise came into affect on the 1st of January for all wholesalers. However us to give the consumers some time what we have done is purchase as much as we could at the end of December and we are holding these prices until stocks run out and we have to re-order or until the 1st of Feb
Stock up while you can and happy shooting this summer!
Kodak Price Rises
If you haven’t heard already, just before the new year Kodak announced a major price rise that will be effecting all emulsions. This is much larger than the usual annual 5% price increase and isn’t consistent among all films. Some have increased by 15% and some by over 30%. We thought we’d give a little write up to keep you all in the loop
Why?
In short, there has been a such a massive surge in demand that the limited production lines that are open currently are at max capacity. They are needing to expand these. In addition to this there is an unprecedented amount of back orders at the moment. They will not be able to fulfill these at the current price due to raw material costs going up, as it is an increase more than they can absorb. This increase has been passed onto the distributors worldwide, so everyone is affected. The full statement is below
How much?
When:
The price rise came into affect on the 1st of January for all wholesalers. However us to give the consumers some time what we have done is purchase as much as we could at the end of December and we are holding these prices until stocks run out and we have to re-order or until the 1st of Feb
Stock up while you can and happy shooting this summer!
Best,
The Black and White Box Team x