In an interview this week with PrintWeek, Kodak’s VP of corporate strategy and commercial marketing Chris Payne was keen to stress the upside of a deal that the company acknowledged would "pose challenges" for retirees.

"That’s actually very good news for Kodak and its commercial imaging group because obviously the cash cost to the company of these obligations was very high and effectively that now diminishes from January 1," he said, adding there are other legacy costs the company is committed on as well.

The retiree benefits program includes medical, dental, life insurance and survivor income benefits, which in total equate to a $1.2bn liability that Kodak has reached an agreement in principle to resolve with the Official Committee of Retirees.

Kodak has offered a $7.5m cash payment to support initial administration and benefit obligations, a $635m unsecured claim and a $15m allowed administrative claim.

Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, Kodak has revealed how it will work with its creditors and bond holders as it makes slow but steady progress to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy some time in mid-2013.

The second announcement, which basically set the stage for negotiations with its many creditors, and bondholders, included the company’s forecasts for the coming year that project Kodak’s US operations will have modest losses both this month and in November followed by a small $9m profit in December 2012.

Kodak estimated it US business will have negative cash flow of $110m in the first half of 2013, but rebound strongly in the second half of 2013 and in 2014 and 2015. Payne suggested the projections were all part of the bankruptcy process — and part of the process to turn the company into a B2B focused firm primarily centered on digital commercial print.

"We need to file a plan for reorganization which we will do probably in the first half of next year," he continued. "In order to do that we need to have a business that is operationally sound as we move forward and the bond holders and creditors need to agree to the plan and then somebody needs to fund it as we come out of Chapter 11."

Payne added that most, but not all, of Kodak’s creditors are related to legacy businesses that don’t involve commercial printing.

"There are very few creditors that are large customers, though there are some," he said. "The bond holders and credit holders are mostly financial institutions with some others on the consumer side, including retailers," he said.

Payne also stressed that the decision to focus the future of the company on its B2B commercial digital print/packaging was made well before the company filed for Chapter 11 in January. "We said this was the heart of the emerging company and you can see why it’s a business that we’ve chosen, because obviously it has opportunity for us and it has opportunity for our customers given how we see the business moving forward," he said.

"The good things about drupa or even last week’s Graph Expo in Chicago is how our customers view the solutions that we have — that gives us confidence going forward."

In recent interviews, Kodak Chairman/CEO Antonio Perez said the company will exit Chapter 11 sometime in mid-2013 and Payne stressed those plans have not changed. "None of this impacts the time at all — this is actually one of the formal steps you have to go through to get to the restructuring plan and there are a number of other steps that we have to file."

Payne stressed that the vast majority of its customers continued to voice support for Kodak commercial printing operations at last week’s GraphExpo in Chicago, adding: "That gives us confidence that our technology can provide a solution that adds value to our customers’ work.

"I’ve seen some of the skepticism around but it really doesn’t affect where we’re going because I can see the value and our path has been pretty consistent since day one. If you go back to before Chapter 11, we always believe that the commercial printing business was the future for Kodak, given where our technology is and where our core customers are in this business."