Image: Kodak Alaris

Kodak Alaris, the company that markets and sells Kodak photographic film, and its Kodak Moments printing and kiosk business, has been sold to Kingswood Capital Management, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm.

We don't usually cover mergers and acquisitions, but we felt that the story of how Kodak's film business ended up passing through the hands of the UK Government's Pension Protection Fund would make an interesting Film Friday story.

It all dates back to 2012, when Eastman Kodak, the Rochester, New York-based company most people picture when they think about 'Kodak,' entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Chapter 11 refers to a section of the US bankruptcy laws that provides a mechanism for companies to restructure under court supervision so that they can try to continue to pay their creditors rather than simply going bust.

Eastman Kodak exits the consumer photo business

As part of this process, Eastman Kodak decided to sell-off several of its businesses, including its 'Personalized Imaging and Document' division that included its consumer-facing photo film business, to the pension fund of its former UK employees. The fund was owed $2.8B by Eastman Kodak, and taking ownership of the consumer photo businesses was seen as the most effective way of addressing that debt.

A new UK-based company, Kodak Alaris, was created to act as the owner of all these assets, with the Kodak Moments branding created for the consumer photo printing and kiosk business and Kodak Professional covering its photo film and paper sales.

Kodak Alaris was set up in the UK in 2013, becoming owner of the former Eastman Kodak Perzonalized Imaging and Document business, which included document processing, photo printing kiosks, specialist printing servies and photographic paper and film.

Meanwhile, Eastman Kodak emerged from Chapter 11 in 2013, focused on commercial imaging markets including "commercial printing, packaging, functional printing and professional services". The "professional services" part of this description includes selling cinema film and large-format film for industrial applications and aerial photography. But although Eastman Kodak still owns the manufacturing facilities, it's Kodak Alaris that owns the rights to sell 'Kodak' photo film.

As owner of the Kodak name, Eastman Kodak went through a period of licensing the brand quite extensively, including to JK Imaging for the creation of digital cameras, and to a company that wanted to rent you a bitcoin miner under a familiar name.

UK Pension Protection Fund

By 2020, Kodak Alaris wasn't able to fully support its liabilities to the former employees' pension scheme, despite the sale of its paper and chemical division, so the pension scheme and its assets (including Kodak Alaris) were adopted by the UK Government's Pension Protection Fund (PPF).

Earlier this month, PPF said that since this point Kodak Alaris had been "restructured and has subsequently performed well, leading to our decision to sell the business."

Its purchase by Kingswood Capital, which also owns consumer businesses such as furniture/decor/food retailer World Market, ends the unusual situation of film shooters funding the retirement payments of former workers of collapsed UK companies.