Eastman Kodak Company announced it has renewed an agreement with Walmart Canada to be the principal supplier of retail photo kiosks and dry lab systems, consumable products, and services across the retailer's entire chain of photo centers. Walmart Canada operates more than 320 locations across the country.
Kodak will continue to provide media, supplies, and service to Walmart Canada's existing behind-the-counter lab systems and instant photo kiosks. In addition, Kodak will convert up to 100 Walmart Canada photo centers from traditional wet lab systems to KODAK Adaptive Picture Exchange (APEX) dry labs over the next 12 months.
All of Walmart Canada's photo centers will take advantage of the new KODAK Picture Kiosk Software 4.0 enhancements, including Video Snapshots feature, which lets consumers easily select images from video clips, convert them into digital pictures, and then use them to create prints or premium products in seconds; Pet Eye Retouch feature, which allows pet owners to fix the unnatural color that occurs in pets' eyes when photographed with a flash; Facial Retouch feature, which automatically identifies facial imperfections and reduces or removes them to match the skin's original color and texture; and Social Network Connectivity feature, which enables consumers to download images from KODAK Gallery, FACEBOOK site, and PICASA Web Albums program, and use them to create prints and premium photo products.
With the new APEX labs behind the counter, Walmart Canada will expand its photo service offer to consumers to include premium products such as greeting cards, calendars, collages, and photo books. APEX is a modular and scalable platform, so the retailer has considerable flexibility for customization and can choose the APEX and kiosk features that best match the footprint and traffic of each store, while also enabling robust and trackable print-to-store connections from the Internet. Kodak will also be outfitting the APEX installations with duplex and wide format printers for creating dual-sided cards and photo books, as well as poster prints.
