It had an installed base of 39 Prosper presses at the end of last year.
The number of pages being produced on Prosper systems also jumped by 46% in the period, but despite this sales in the group’s Enterprise Inkjet Systems division fell by 19% to $39m (£24.9m), which Kodak said was due to currency fluctuations and a decline in revenues from its legacy Versamark inkjet systems. Operating EBITDA losses at the division increased by $1m to $13m.
Chief executive Jeff Clarke said that Versamark had represented approximately 60% of the revenue of the inkjet systems division last year, but this would change in 2015.
“This profitable legacy business will decline while we continue to drive scale in our Prosper business. By the second half of 2015, Prosper will represent the majority of revenue in this division driven by placement of presses, S-series systems, and related Prosper annuities,” he explained.
“Our Prosper inkjet systems business is still early in its lifecycle and we're well on our way to building a business with good scale and profitability, placing equipment with direct customers as well as enrolling a base of OEM partners. For 2015 we expect to ship 25 systems, a significant acceleration in growth.”
It’s the first time the $2.1bn-turnover group has reported its results under the new “market focused” structure Clarke announced in December.
Overall, first-quarter sales at Kodak were down 12.5% to $427m. The loss on continuing operations reduced by $10m year-on-year to $50m. Clarke said more than half of the sales fall was due to currency fluctuations.
He said the firm was making progress in re-engineering its cost structure, with the reduction in expenses put at $35m in Q1 and projected to be more than $100m for the full year.
Sales at the Print Systems division, Kodak’s largest business unit, also fell. Revenues here were down $34m to $254m, despite a big jump in the number of users of its Sonora process-free plates, which resulted in volumes of the plate almost doubling.
Kodak now has 2,274 customers using the product, an increase of 12% on the number at the end of 2014.
The firm cited currency exchange and “competitive industry pricing” as being behind the division’s fall in sales.
Operational EBITDA at Print Systems increased by $1m to $13m year-on-year.
In the Micro 3D Printing and Packaging division, which includes Flexcel NX flexo plates, sales grew 7% to $31m and the unit broke even. Volumes for Flexcel NX were up 27%.
Its Software & Solutions division posted sales up 17% to $28m, and it turned around last year’s loss of $1m to post operational EBITDA of $2m.
Kodak recently announced a new version of its Prinergy pre-press system, Workflow 7, and in March appointed Allan Brown as the new general manager of its Unified Workflow business.
Sales at the Consumer and Film Division declined by 16% to $72m, but EBITDA jumped to $18m thanks to better inventory management and production efficiencies at the films business. It recently reached agreements over film volume commitments with a number of major Hollywood studios.
Clarke said Kodak’s “transition to sustained growth and profitability” would be more evident in the second half of the year.
Kodak’s share price has slipped since the results announcement on 7 May, falling from $19.36 to $17.91.
