MANILA, Philippines--Kodak Philippines Ltd. is reopening its Philippine office, after two years of maintaining its presence here solely through distributors.

In a statement Thursday, Kodak Philippines country business manager for retail printing Cathy Pacia said the company felt this was the right time to reinforce its presence in the country and keep pace with the growth of the local imaging sector.

The company now saw greater opportunity in the Philippine market to grow both the digital and traditional aspects of its business, she added.

“We are in exciting times when digital technology has inspired Kodak worldwide to grow by leaps and bounds with its product offerings,” she said.

“Kodak has indeed done a good balancing act, aggressively promoting our digital imaging portfolio, while preserving our traditional film and analog camera business,” she added.

Kodak in May 2007 decided to close its Philippine office and just adopt the distributor model for the bulk of its business, which included the consumer digital and film and photo-finishing groups.

The company then just got a local company, Techtrends Corp., to represent Kodak parent firm Eastman Kodak Co. in the Philippines.

Techtrends, apart from its sub-distributorship agreements with different outlets in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, also owned the Kodak Express one-stop digital shop franchise, which has a nationwide network of more than 350 stores.

With the return of Kodak’s Philippine office, it would now coordinate its marketing and promotional activities with its authorized nationwide distributors led by Techtrends.

Two other distributors, Wordtext Systems Inc. and Euro Color Imaging Corp., would also be involved in pushing the Kodak brand locally.

“Kodak has brought back its Philippine office to ensure that the Filipinos are always kept abreast of the latest exciting offerings from Kodak,” Kodak Philippines country business manager for digital capture and devices Anna Cabanos said.

Pacia also said that the advent of digital photography had caused the photo printing business to slow in previous years.

This time, however, Kodak felt that the industry was again poised for growth.

Consumers, while still hooked on digital photography, had now found ways to enhance and print their digital photos, instead of just storing these in their computers or on CDs.

Kodak offers a wide range of printing options, including the photo book and the photo mosaic.