Made In U.S.A.; Finished In Mexico

[arjun_mehra]

I've looked at a few boxes of Kodak film recently (Gold 100 and Ultra Color

100), and have noticed that they read, "Made in U.S.A.; finished in Mexico for,

EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY." I wonder what exactly this means...

[charles_stobbs3]

Maybe sized and packaged?

[douglas_vitello]

The film is made in the USA in bulk spools and then sent to Mexico in climate controlled transportation where just about everything else is done - loaded into canisters, and then packaged.Elite slide film gets the same treatment these days.This is the reply I received back from Kodak when I asked a few years ago.I've never noticed any difference in quality since they moved packaging there (at least for Elite film).What is really odd is it seemed like for a while all the Gold print film was coming from China.Hard to believe something would be removed from China and once again manufactured back in the USA.

[arjun_mehra]

Douglas, that's interesting; thanks.

[benny_spinoza]

That is interesting. But one would think that the entire production chain is pretty much automated. (After all, much of it is done in the dark.) If that assumption were true, then I can't see how they would save money by moving the packaging part of production to Mexico.

 

Maybe the boxes are hand-painted yellow? :)

[larrydressler]

With lead paint?

[larry_wilson1]

It's not really all than unusual, given the general lack of quality control in Chinese factories. Perhaps Kodak wasn't able to control the manufacturing process as much as they would have liked, and they decided that the lowered cost of making the film in China was not worth losing prestige because of sub-par film.

 

I can't really say I blame them, if that's what they did.

 

The "Finished in Mexico" part made me somewhat leery of trying Kodak again, but I took the plunge again recently. I'm still not impressed enough with it to put Fuji on second tier, but at least the things I liked about it before--the sharpness--was still there, even if Fuji was just as sharp and had better color rendition, in my opinion.

[arjun_mehra]

Larry Wilson, which Kodak film did you try, and which Fuji film do you find you like most?

[wickedmartini]

Drive down Ridge Road here in Rochester and you'll know exactly what it means...

 

What that means is that the support is made in one location, the emulsion in another, the cassettes in another, blah, blah blah... But they all meet up in Mexico for assembly or "finishing". All of this used to take place here in Rochester where the large piles of rubble are on Ridge Road.

[douglas_vitello]

If you want to see rubble come and visit Ohio and Michigan.Even the engine in my all American Chevy was made in Mexico.Hard to be loyal to anything anymore when companies keep moving all the jobs offshore.I'll give Kodak some credit for at least keeping most of the film production still at home.When they move that offshore I'll start buying from the competition.

[craig_shearman1]

"When they move that offshore I'll start buying from the competition." And you think "the competition" is manufacturing in the U.S.? :)

[douglas_vitello]

I know the competition is not made here and that is the main reason I have used Kodak for over thirty years (it has always been great film,too,as good if not better than Fuji).When they finally say goodbye I'll say goodbye like I've done with numerous other products.I just can't stomach anymore what these corporations have done to their workers in the race to the bottom.Why reward a company when they sell you out?

[david_m]

Kodak film is not just made in the USA, it's also made in the UK (well used to be), China and other parts of the World. Don't fool yourself into thinking Kodak is an AMERICAN company, it isn't, it's a multi-national and has been for decades.

[wickedmartini]

As someone that has worked for both companies mentioned above, you'd be surprised at how much Fuji manufactures here in the US. At one point in time--while a friend of mine was training workers in Mexico to take his job--Fuji's one time use cameras had more American parts than the Kodak model. Do a little research...

[douglas_vitello]

I do my research, and as a exclusive transparency user I have yet to pick up a Fuji box that was made in the USA (I know a lot of their print film is made here,though).Most of it appears to come from Japan - I assume for quality reasons.Most of the Kodak Pro films (slide),Elite,and B&W can still be sourced out of the USA.In thirty years I have yet to get a bad roll of Kodak film.I believe this is because it is "fresh",sourced in the country I live in and purchased from large volume dealers who climate control their stock.If the day comes (and I'm sure it will sooner than later) when Kodak stops all film production in the USA then it will become a moot matter.

[jim_devlin]

Americans love to complain about jobs being outsourced to Mexico, Japan, China, etc., yet they flock to Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, etc. to overextend their credit cards buying the latest electronic goodies that are manufactured in those countries.

 

Americans also love to bash those greedy, heartless businessmen who make the outsourcing decisions, yet few pay attention as their 401(k) and pension money is invested on Wall Street in those same companies.

 

I've done OK for myself by focusing on buying quality products from companies that stand behind what they sell, regardless of where the home office is.

[terence_spross1]

For years Kodak was a multi-national company and it protected the United States market from its own imports as far as it could for a long time. (The foreign film manufacture was for foreign markets.) Market pressures have changed all that. Quite frankly, a lot of people complain about the major store chains and the large manufacturers. But the truth of the matter is that the US Congress passed laws that make it exceedingly difficult for the businesses to remain US only and be competitive. Certain protective marketing tools that used to be used by Kodak to keep some of their own foreign film out of the US is now illegal. While they didn't fully use all the protections (yes many photographers bought grey market Kodak), they couldn't restrict it now if they wanted to. If an evolutionary change of laws were to occur such that in a few years Walmart couldn't sell anything foreign, they would still be successful because they are organized to be efficient.

[randrew1]

Kodak's film production was never completely gone from Rochester. Even when much of the film coating was done in China, the film base and the emulsions were made in Rochester. One of the last projects I worked on at Kodak (2005) was moving production of most color neg films from China back to Rochester. There was no problem with the quality of the film coated in China. The Chinese workers were very capable. The move to China and the move back to the US were both prompted by tax advantages.

 

My sources tell me that virtually all Kodak film (except motion picture print film) is coated in Building 38 at Kodak Park. This is a high quality facility with exceptionally good uniformity.

[douglas_vitello]

Terence,have you ever been to Japan?I have numerous times.If anyone closed their market to foreign film it was Japan Inc.,Fuji is everywhere and lots of luck finding Kodak products in any mainstream store.Please,don't start the argument"because it is so much better".Fuji was nothing in the USA until they started undercutting Kodak on price to grab market share and yes a lot of Americans are greedy and shop for the bottom line only,Japan learned that lesson well many years ago.