Kenko Tokina has Entered into a Business Alliance with Carl Zeiss in Japan
Kenko Tokina has announced that it has entered a business alliance with Carl Zeiss in Japan. Starting on April 1, Tokina will take over the sales and repair of all Carl Zeiss interchangeable photo lenses.
Kenko Tokina manages multiple brands of interchangeable lenses, binoculars, and other optical devices in various industries. In photography, it manages the distribution and sales of Tokina Lenses, Samyang lenses, Portland-based creative optics company Lensbaby, and Kenko-branded teleconverters, mount adapters, and mirror lenses.
In an announcement published to its Japanese website, Kenko Tokina states that its alliance covers a wide range of products, but excludes Carl Zeiss’s commercal cine lenses and “peripheral” products. Below is the full announcement, translated from Japanese.
Kenko Tokina Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Nakano-ku, Tokyo, President: Toru Yamanaka) aims to further strengthen the sales and repair services of products provided by the Consumer & Professional Division of Carl Zeiss AG. , We will form a business alliance. As a result, from April 1, 2021, Kenko Tokina Co., Ltd. will take over the sales and repair services of the following target products and will continue to meet the needs of our customers.
Business alliance start date: April 1, 2021
Products subject to business alliance: Carl Zeiss Co., Ltd. Among the products provided by Consumer & Professional Division, interchangeable lenses for photography, binoculars, spotting scopes, and other accessories (excluding commercial cine lenses and their peripheral products)
Inquiries regarding products associated with the business alliance and shipping addresses for repaired products are as follows. Thank you for your understanding.
The exact products that will be covered will not be made known until after April 1st.
The partnership seems to be very beneficial to Carl Zeiss as it will greatly expand the brand’s reach via Kenko Tokina’s extensive dealer relationship in Japan. Kenko Tokina’s past addition of Lensbaby and Samyang into its portfolio likely served to give customers of those two brands greater access to service and repair, therefore giving customers more confidence to invest in equipment. Presumably, this relationship will allow Carl Zeiss to focus on the design and manufacture of products while Kenko Tokina can use its resources to get those products into more hands.
It isn’t likely that this business alliance is to the depth of Leica, Sigma, and Panasonic and the three’s L-Mount Alliance, which was a more robust business relationship that expanded beyond service and sales.
(via Digicame Info)
Editor’s note: The original story has been updated to reflect the alliance only affects the business relationship in Japan. Due to a translation error, the original report stated this alliance would be international. We apologize for the issue.
