From: Rod Fleming (rodfleming@sol.co.uk)
Date: 08/05/00-02:10:36 AM Z
Hi
So the answer is for some enterprising outfit to approach the Chinese
manufacturers and offer a deal along the lines of "you do something about
the quality control and we have a ready foreign currency market for you".
The only important question then, assuming the Chinese are a) not bound by
the terms of the Kodak deal _not_ to export (or more probably, not to export
to the USA) and b) as keen to earn foreign currency as they have
consistently shown themselves to be over the last decade, is the biggy-
IS there really, actually enough demand?
Having taken part in various import/export projects in the past, I can
assure anyone interested that being sure of sufficient turnover to make it
worth someone's while to go to the considerable time and trouble, not to
mention outlay of the hard-earned, that would be involved, is the crux of
the issue. So it's down to market research and the usual procedures of
setting up any business.
I'm not, please note, saying that such a venture is unfeasible- actually
it's intriguing. As someone said (roughly) Kodak are not always right. But
niche-marketing, which sounds easy, is actually very hard to get right, and
doing the preparation, the business plan, and crunching the cold hard
numbers late into the night is an absolute must. And then you have to work
like a beaver to make a go of it, always watching over your shoulder that
one of the big boys doesn't decide to launch a spoiler product.
But if someone's up for it, give me a shout- I'll take some. Hell, I'll even
flog it for you.
Have a nice weekend
Rod
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sil Horwitz" <silh@earthlink.net>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca>
Sent: Saturday, August 05, 2000 5:46 AM
Subject: Re: Kodak to re-introduce Super-XX
> It may interest all people on this list who are salivating over Super
> XX that Kodak set up a complete SXX plant in China about ten years ago,
> and much of the "local" Chinese BW film was (and probably still is) SXX.
> From what I understand, they moved all the technology (machinery,
> nstrumentation, etc) to the Chinese location. They did this in return for
> certain color film sales rights (plus whatever else was necessary to make
> the transfer profitable). So all the talk about Kodak gearing up to
> manufacture this film in the US would require some pretty extensive cash
> outlays for what they consider an obsolete film. I think if you look at
the
> sales curve (prior to selling the equipment, etc., to China) it was almost
> a straight drop down when the Tgrain films were introduced. No
> profit-driven company is going to continue the manufacture of a dead
> product when the death is due to a (publicly perceived) improved product.
>
> When I was in China I bought a bunch of Chinese SuperXX film and found it
> more like the old SuperX, quite inferior. But - VERY cheap (like 50 cents
> per 24 exp 35mm roll). (And that was in the high-priced "foreign" stores
in
> which the "natives" weren't allowed to shop. Probably cheaper in the local
> stores.)
>
>
> Sil Horwitz, FPSA
> Technical Editor, PSA Journal
> teched@psa-photo.org
> silh@earthlink.net
> Visit http://www.psa-photo.org/
> Personal page: http://home.earthlink.net/~silh/
>
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