Kodak to add Sonora plate manufacturing capacity in the Americas

Driven by rapidly-growing customer demand for Sonora plates, the expansion is in line with Kodak’s plans to drive local sourcing while continuously improving manufacturing quality, production efficiencies and customer service across its entire digital plate portfolio.

More than 800 customers worldwide currently use Sonora plates, which are manufactured in Europe in Osterode, Germany and Leeds, UK. The investment in a new high-speed manufacturing line in the Columbus facility complements the recently announced investment in Sonora plate capacity at Kodak’s Xiamen plant in China. These investments will complete Kodak’s globalization of Sonora plate manufacturing and ensure the capabilities and capacity to meet ‘unprecedented growth’, as well as supporting production of Kodak’s full digital plate portfolio.

Brad Kruchten, president of Kodak’s Graphics, Entertainment & Commercial Films group, said: ‘To meet the demand generated by the tremendous growth of Sonora plates in the Americas, we need to build a brand new world-class plate manufacturing line in our Columbus plant.

‘This is a clear statement of our commitment to enable sustainable printing in the Americas.’

Robert Price, general manager of Kodak’s worldwide plate operations, added: ‘We see the shift toward SONORA Plates growing to a very significant volume.

‘We need to manufacture SONORA Plates in each region in order to deliver enough capacity to meet the demand. Also, it’s important to have manufacturing in each region in order to provide the ultimate customer service – delivering what customers need, when they need it.’