Kodak chief touches down in Australia
The visit represents Helman's first trip to Australia since PacPrint last year, and his first look at the new headquarters since the company pulled its graphic arts players together to form the Graphics Communication Group.
Speaking to the press, alongside Australia and New Zealand managing director Steve Green, Helman spoke of the difficulties inherent in converting Kodak from its traditional role as a consumables supplier, over to a digital company.
“Kodak is currently undergoing its transformation from a company that sells boxes of film at a high margin, to a digital company that sells the whole spectrum of products, many of which come in at a much lower margin.”
Helman concedes such a change is problematic for a company like Kodak. H e maintains the strategy is to provide the complete range of digital solutions, as well as a range of 'value adds' to its customers.
“The printing industry is lagging behind many others when it comes to productivity increases, but we believe that with our complete portfolio we can assist printers in catching up, and add a significant amount of value to the process,” says Helman.
“The key is capturing the customers right down the chain, and providing the consumables at every stage of the process,” says Helman.
“Our research and development department is working hard on allowing us to tie all of our solutions together, and there is no other graphic arts supplier that can offer such a broad range of solutions under the one roof.”
Kodak completed the process of bringing together all of its GCG players into the one location in both Sydney and Melbourne late last year, and Helman claims the integration has gone smoothly.
(L to R: Steve Green, GCG managing director for Australia & NZ; Garron Helman, GCG managing director for Asia Pacific)
“When we brought all the six companies together, they slid together very quickly and successfully. While combining the back offices, as well as bringing the sales and marketing teams together presents its obvious difficulties, Australia is the first location in the world to experience the benefits of working together.”
“It's been a challenging ride but the teams we've inherited are outstanding, with years of industry experience across the board,” says Helman. “We're looking forward to moving onward and upward in 2006.”
Kodak completed the process of bringing together all of its GCG players into the one location in both Sydney and Melbourne late last year, and Helman claims the integration has gone smoothly.