"No job cuts" under Heidelberg deal, says Kodak

Kodak marketing director Anthony Harvey said the company's existing sales team would "continue to work in the web, newspaper, packaging, commercial and digital print markets".

"There will be restructuring, but the net result is that there will be no job cuts," Harvey told ProPrint.

The deal will impact on Heidelberg's CTP distribution deal with Agfa. "The [Kodak] agreement is an exclusive agreement so Agfa products will be phased out during first half 2010," Heidelberg Australia and New Zealand (HAN) managing director Andy Vels Jensen revealed to ProPrint.

"The Heidelberg and Kodak ranges complement each other as much as they overlap. In every relationship it's a question of give and take." But he said Heidleberg did not expect to sell fewer Suprasetters than forecast before the deal was signed.

Kodak emphasised that customers would see no drastic changes as a result of the deal.

"Kodak's sheetfed customers will now deal directly through Heidelberg, with the same contractual agreements, and arrangements which are in place for them now. Those customers who purchase Kodak products off Kodak's sheetfed distributors will continue to do so," Harvey said.

"The Kodak plates that customers purchase today will continue to be of the same quality, as they are all manufactured by Kodak, the only difference being they will be branded under the Heidelberg consumables name Saphira, alongside Kodak-branded consumables sold by Heidelberg." 

Both companies announced yesterday that Heidelberg will become the exclusive distributor of Kodak consumables, workflow software, and CTP equipment in the commercial sheetfed market from 1 January.

It is believed that Kodak will retain responsibility for its web offset CTP portfolio.