Press "Enter" to skip to content

APS re-appointed official Kodak supplier

Kodak Alaris has appointed APS (Australian Photo Supplies Pty Ltd) as an official A/NZ distributor of the Kodak ‘Retail Systems Solutions’ *(RSS) portfolio including dye sub printers and consumables, APEX equipment, Kodak Picture Kiosks and the new Kodak Kiosk Tablet 100.

Rob Dessmann, managing director, APS
Rob Dessmann, managing director, APS

APS was an official Kodak supplier for many years, with the business being established by ex-Kodak marketing and supply chain executives. When the contract to supply Kodak products was lost in 2012, APS continued to supply a range of its existing Kodak-supporting customers with Kodak photographic paper not sourced from Kodak Australia (or more recently, Kodak Alaris).

The Kodak Alaris press release does not include photographic paper and chemistry as part of the Kodak product portfolio that APS will distribute.

Independent Photo Supplies (IPS), along with C-Direct and UCC remain in their roles as Kodak distributors, with IPS the official supplier into the photo specialist and pro lab channels.

‘We are extending our distribution network in Australia and New Zealand with Australian Photo Supplies, as the Kodak Alaris Personalised Imaging business commences the roll out of our new destination concept Kodak Print Place. These new retail destinations will feature our latest services enabling consumers to easily create personalised photo products with images on their smart devices,’ said David Santer, newly-appointed Asia Pacific regional business manager.

‘APS will focus on expanding this new strategic initiative to new complementary channels,’ he said.

APS managing director Rob Dessmann said: ‘We believe this partnership will ensure our customers have access to Kodak Alaris’ world class products that will enhance our existing large range of photo packaging, sublimation, film, battery and wide-format papers and inks.’

While the press release from Kodak Alaris has David Santer indicating APS will focus on distribution to the new outlets identified for the Kodak Picture Place concept, it does not seem to categorically exclude the company supplying to the ‘traditional’ photo channel, and Mr Dessmann’s comments also indicate a continued interest in the photo channel.

IPS managing director, Stuart Holmes has made the following comments on the appointment:

‘Independent Photographic Supplies (IPS) understood that Kodak Alaris wanted to open up a “New Channel of Business Partner” for the soon to be available KPP100 Tablet Kiosk System, as launched by IPS at the last year’s 2013 IDEA Show, Camera House AGM and recent New Zealand roadshow.

‘Kodak Alaris believe that this new smartphone-based “kiosk” technology would have a “Ubiquitous Print Opportunity” anywhere/anytime far outside of the traditional Kodak Express Retail Channel, and therefore IPS was informed that a non-traditional RSS (Retail Systems Solutions) channel partner would be appointed to specialise in the “coffee shop-type retail print opportunity environment”.

Independent Photographic Supplies has just signed a record second Long Term Sales Agreement with Kodak Alaris as the official distributor of Kodak P & OS Products (traditional AG-X paper & photo chemistry products) to the photo specialty channel, incorporating Kodak Express and all photo specialty retailer channel opportunities, along with the Kodak professional lab channel in Australia, New Zealand, The Cook Islands, Fiji, New Guinea, Norfolk Island and Vanuatu.

‘Our understanding is that both Kodak Alaris and all their other channel partners will respect all defined sales channels within the business group,’ said Mr Holmes.

 

 

 

 

 

4 Comments

  1. yvonne yvonne May 6, 2014

    Maybe I could be a Kodak supplier too. It seems that anybody can be.

    • Alan Alan May 7, 2014

      Yvonne – what are you talking about?
      When APS was an official distributor, IPS was an “unofficial” distributor. Then IPS became an official distributor and APS became an “unofficial” distributor. As a lab owner, it is nice to be spoiled by choice with where we buy from, plus some (healthy, not stupid) competition between distributors is good for us as a buyer.
      Both companies have their strengths and are are a pleasure to deal with (and so is C Direct, who we also buy from).
      Go back to the pre-distributor days when we would buy from Kodak, and there were no paper/chem deals for labs – now there are deals and offers which we may or may not decide to take up, but at least there are offers to us.
      We will continue to support all 3 companies whilst they support us.

  2. PG PG May 9, 2014

    There is a lot of experience and knowledge at APS I know that they will do a great job, they listen to their customers and provide an excellent friendly service. Right now they are probably in Hobart changing Tim Jones store from black back to yellow!

  3. VOR VOR May 12, 2014

    “spoiled by choice”….my customers are spoiled by choice and that has driven the print prices to a level where my colleagues have gone broke. If a supplier has made a significant investment in what’s left of our industry then we should be supporting them 100% as the official supplier. I will be supporting both these companies as official suppliers of official products…not grey marketed products as this only supports the Asian economy.
    Finally aren’t we the ones who complain about overseas imports and plead with the government to charge GST on these sales?
    Yet we are the first to jump all over the official suppliers and support grey or the Non official suppliers….Which are grey anyway!!
    We cant have it both ways!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Our Business Partners

Top