German CEWE Acquires American Kodak Moments

The logic behind an unusual acquisition



The Kodak Moments Retail Photo Solutions division operates a global instant photo business spanning 54 countries.

• Financial Performance: Kodak Moments generates annual revenues of approximately €200M ($228M). Kodak Moments today is profitable and CEWE expects Kodak Moments to maintain its mid-single-digit EBIT margin post-acquisition.
• Employees: Kodak Moments employs ~500 people.
• Retail Presence: operates roughly 37,000 connected photo stations across 16,000 retail stores. Key retail partners include dm, Rossmann, Carrefour, CVS (US), Walmart Canada, Farmacias (Mexico), and Kmart Australia.

Untangling the "Kodak" Brand Names

• Kodak Alaris: Outside of Kodak Moments, PE-owned Kodak Alaris sells — and is planning to continue to sell — document processing and data capture solutions. (For more on Alaris’ rocky past, see Gary Pageau’s analysis covering the acquisition).
• Eastman Kodak Company: This is an entirely separate, publicly traded entity (NYSE) focused on commercial digital printing, advanced materials, and industrial chemical manufacturing (producing everything from EV battery substrates to pharmaceutical ingredients). Eastman Kodak also licenses the Kodak brand to third parties like JK Imaging (Kodak PIXPRO cameras).

My Take

An unusual acquirer in today's PE-dominated photo printing M&A world

This acquisition is part of a broader wave of consolidation in the photo printing market, but it stands out for one clear reason: the buyer isn't a PE firm looking for an eventual — ideally fast — exit. (Kingswood Capital Management, by comparison, acquired Kodak Alaris just two years ago and is now already selling off Kodak Moments).

CEWE is a publicly listed strategic buyer with a clear mandate: expand global scale, deepen retail reach, and harvest supply-chain synergies.

Why Physical Retail Still Matters

Physical photo retail has been under heavy pressure from web platforms, mobile apps, and direct print APIs built into popular apps. Yet, brick-and-mortar photo kiosks and in-store labs have proven remarkably resilient. In surveys I’ve conducted over the years, three key dynamics jump out:

1. Tactile Discovery: Online browsing rarely matches physical, real-world discovery. Many consumers don't realize innovative photo print products exist until they see them on display in a retail store or shown off by friends.
   
2. Instant Gratification for Younger Buyers: In-store photo printing at drugstores and supermarkets appeals strongly to younger demographics who value immediate turnaround — think instant gratification.
   
3. The Retro Trend: Nostalgia remains highly popular among younger cohorts, a theme we explored in detail during our "Enduring Appeal of Retro" panel at Visual 1st. The Kodak brand is cool again, a fact Kodak Moments has successfully leveraged in recent years.

By acquiring Kodak Moments, an omnichannel-powered CEWE gets the ideal vehicle to capture younger consumers right at the point of impulse purchase — with the long-term potential to convert them into higher-margin digital channels as their buying habits mature.

CEWE isn't just buying Kodak brand nostalgia though; it's buying an established, high-traffic retail engine with a footprint in many parts of the world.

Hans Hartman



And a few more things...

Aphera. New RAW image editor

Past Visual 1st Show & Tell demo presenter Ryan Carver, founder of Series, a photo & video layout app for visual storytelling on social media, has turned his frustration with existing RAW image editors into developing Aphera, a journey that took him 2.5 years.

The result? Aphera, a new Mac-native RAW editor aimed at photographers who want speed and a more fluid workflow. The software focuses on fast RAW handling, film-inspired colors, non-destructive editing, bulk operations, and keyboard-driven culling and adjustments, with support for 100+ megapixel files.

Adobe. Project Indigo testing AI Playground

Adobe is testing AI Playground inside Project Indigo, its experimental iPhone camera app. AI Playground adds generative tools at capture time. The feature set includes removing distractors, adding shallow depth of field, changing lighting, and — my favorite assuming it works well — getting real-time critique and reshoot suggestions.

As these are experimental features within an already experimental app, Adobe limits access to a small share of users and only for a few weeks.

Perfectly Clear. Launching Retouching 2.0.

Perfectly Clear launched Retouching 2.0, a major upgrade to its automated editing engine built for high-volume photography and print labs. The upgrade reportedly delivers a 95% increase in face-detection accuracy and includes eight professional tools, among them a new Depth & Volume feature. Check out the original image examples and compare them with the Retouching 1.0 and Retouching 2.0 results.

The company says its new engine emphasizes skin tone and texture preservation, and supports both on-premise and cloud workflows with batch corrections and GDPR-compliant processing options.

What’s next? Flyaway Hair Removal and AI Blemish Removal are both on the horizon for later this year.

NEW Visual 1st Show & Tell Presenters:

We welcome: Ethan Miller from Mimeo Photos and Rob Shadowens from Tracer Imaging.

Have an innovative product you'd like to demo at Visual1st? Check out what we're looking for. 
No cost to attendees.

Meta. Pulling GenAI image feature from Instagram.

As reported in our last issue, Meta’s new Muse Image generative AI image model that let you generate images from public Instagram photos without explicit, individual consent caused an uproar.

O well, after days of backlash this GenAI creation is no longer possible. A case of being tone-deaf fixed.

Muse Image was Meta’s first foray into AI image generation. More AI features and integrations are planned for WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger, and Meta also has an AI video tool in development.

Meta. Advertisers Push Back Against Meta’s Buggy AI Features.

Tone-deaf fixed? Well, here’s already the next customer backlash brewing.

A Business Insider investigation points to growing frustration among advertisers as Meta pushes AI-automated tools that can alter approved ad campaigns in strange and costly ways. Brands reportedly get enrolled by defaults or bugs, and when errors happen, Meta puts the onus on advertisers by stating that advertisers remain responsible for reviewing the output manually.

Meta might get away with this, as many brands remain trapped into using its platform due to Meta’s unmatched market reach and targeting dominance.

NEW Visual 1st Sponsors: I'm pleased to announce we're now at an all-time record number of vendor sponsors! We're now at 25 sponsors, and more to come!

Platinum sponsors to date:

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