中文Kodak has spent so long as a cautionary tale about disrupted industries that a run of consistent financial improvement almost reads as a category error. Yet the second quarter of 2026 marks the company’s fourth consecutive quarter of growth, and the underlying numbers are strong enough to warrant attention from anyone buying plates, ink or inkjet equipment.
The Quarter in Figures
Eastman Kodak reported revenue of $311 million, up 18% year over year. Gross profit reached $82 million, a 61% increase. Operating EBITDA totalled $36 million — four times the figure reported in the second quarter of 2025. And the company returned to net income of $17 million, after posting a loss in the same period a year earlier.
The relationship between those numbers is the informative part. Revenue rose 18% while gross profit rose 61%. That gap means the improvement is not simply a matter of selling more; it reflects selling at better margins. Operating EBITDA quadrupling on an 18% revenue increase points to substantial operating leverage — the kind that appears when a manufacturer with heavy fixed costs pushes more volume through existing plants while simultaneously improving price.
Two Businesses, Two Growth Rates
The divisional split shows where the momentum actually sits. The printing business generated $195 million in revenue, up 10%. The Advanced Materials and Chemicals division posted 40% growth, reaching $105 million.
Print remains the larger business by a clear margin and is growing at a respectable pace for a mature category. Kodak’s plate manufacturing is central to that, and the company holds a distinctive position as the only plate manufacturer in North America — a meaningful advantage in a period when buyers across every industry have grown wary of long, single-region supply chains. Tariff exposure, freight volatility and lead-time risk all favour a domestic producer, and offset plates are a consumable that a commercial printer cannot afford to have stuck in transit.
Advanced Materials and Chemicals growing at 40% is the more strategically consequential number. At $105 million, the division now accounts for roughly a third of group revenue, and it is expanding four times faster than print. This is the part of Kodak that draws on a century of materials science — coatings, films, specialty chemicals — applied to markets beyond graphic communications. A company with a slow-growing core and a fast-growing adjacent business is in a considerably better position than one with only the core.
Inkjet has also become an increasing part of Kodak’s business, reflecting the broader migration of commercial print volume from offset toward digital production. That Kodak participates in both sides of that transition — supplying the plates for offset work and the technology for inkjet — gives it some insulation against the timing of the shift.
Where the Improvement Came From
Kodak attributes the growth to three factors: higher volumes, improved pricing and gains in operational efficiency. That combination is worth separating out, because each carries a different degree of durability.
Higher volumes indicate genuine demand, though they remain subject to market conditions. Improved pricing signals either strengthened competitive position or successful cost pass-through, and is more defensible in a concentrated supply market. Operational efficiency gains tend to be the most durable of the three, since they persist through cycles once achieved.
What makes this performance more notable is the headwind it was achieved against. The improvement came despite continued increases in the cost of silver and aluminum. Both are fundamental inputs to plate manufacturing — silver for imaging chemistry, aluminum for the plate substrate itself — and both have seen sustained price pressure. Growing gross profit by 61% while your two principal raw materials get more expensive requires either substantial pricing power, substantial efficiency improvement, or both. Neither is a small achievement in a mature consumables market.
Reinvestment Rather Than Retrenchment
Perhaps the most telling detail is what Kodak intends to do with the improved results. The company now plans to increase its investment in research and development to support growth in both commercial printing and advanced materials.
This is a change in posture. A business managing decline directs cash toward debt reduction and shareholder returns while holding R&D flat. A business that believes it has viable growth markets funds development. Kodak choosing to raise R&D spending across both divisions — including the print business, not solely the faster-growing materials arm — suggests management sees product opportunity in graphic communications rather than simply a base to defend.
What It Means for Printers
For commercial print buyers, several practical implications follow. A financially healthier plate supplier is straightforwardly good news, since consumables continuity depends on suppliers remaining solvent. The rising silver and aluminum costs Kodak flagged will continue to shape plate pricing across the market — this is an industry-wide input problem, not a Kodak-specific one, and buyers should plan accordingly.
The 10% growth in Kodak’s print revenue also constitutes a useful data point in its own right. Offset plate demand is routinely described as structurally declining, yet the sole North American manufacturer grew its printing revenue by double digits. Some of that reflects pricing rather than volume, but it does not describe a market in freefall. Offset retains a substantial, defensible share of commercial and packaging work.
And the increased R&D commitment matters for equipment planning. Kodak has active positions in both plates and inkjet, meaning it stands to benefit whichever way the offset-to-digital transition proceeds. Additional development funding across both areas should produce product news over the coming quarters that is worth watching, particularly for printers currently deciding how much longer to invest in offset capability.
Four consecutive quarters is not yet a permanent turnaround. But it is long enough to stop being noise.
Source: PrintCAN, August 19, 2026 — Kodak Fourth Consecutive Quarter Of Growth
