Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Hip Hip Hooray! Ilford Photo is born... reborn?! As long as they ain't dead!
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News Release
Ilford move secures black-and-white future
Date: 9 March 2005
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It's good news at last for black-and-white photographers - following last month's management buyout, Ilford Photo says that not only will it continue its current range of monochrome products, it also plans to reintroduce abandoned lines.
According to managing director Phil Harris, the company will retain all existing film lines except SFX200, as well as all existing papers and liquid chemistry. Dry chemistry products, warmtone developers and a number of abandoned papers will be reintroduced over the next few months, and the company hopes to enter new markets such as glass plate coating.
Harris explained: 'The current item list was generated by the receivers for maximum efficiency, so we will reintroduce old lists. For example, we are the only company in the world that can coat glass plates, so while it would not be a big part of our business, we want to consider it. We are committed to black-and-white.
Ilford Photos was created last month after Ilford Imaging Group's UK arm completed a management buy-out. The team acquired the manufacturing and sales and distribution of the Mobberley plant and, according to Harris, will retain the 380 staff now employed there.
Harris was optimistic about the future, despite Ilford's difficulties over the past year. He said: 'Ilford Photo is profitable and solvent.
The receiver had to decide whether to keep the company trading or not, but we had such great support from our customers that the business came back up off the floor. Black-and-white has been declining by 5-7% per year, and last year it declined by 20-30%. I think next year it will be the same, then the decline will flatten out as we reach the core market of fine art, student and specialist black-and-white photographers. We plan to be the last man standing in black-and-white imaging.'
Source: © Incisive Media Investments Ltd 2004
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Well I guess I don't have to give up Ilford HP5 film or their multigrade fiber paper that I use. It's nice to see that there is a core group of companies that will stick with black and white, it's good because not everyone's going to switch to inkejet and digital.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
News Release
Ilford move secures black-and-white future
Date: 9 March 2005
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's good news at last for black-and-white photographers - following last month's management buyout, Ilford Photo says that not only will it continue its current range of monochrome products, it also plans to reintroduce abandoned lines.
According to managing director Phil Harris, the company will retain all existing film lines except SFX200, as well as all existing papers and liquid chemistry. Dry chemistry products, warmtone developers and a number of abandoned papers will be reintroduced over the next few months, and the company hopes to enter new markets such as glass plate coating.
Harris explained: 'The current item list was generated by the receivers for maximum efficiency, so we will reintroduce old lists. For example, we are the only company in the world that can coat glass plates, so while it would not be a big part of our business, we want to consider it. We are committed to black-and-white.
Ilford Photos was created last month after Ilford Imaging Group's UK arm completed a management buy-out. The team acquired the manufacturing and sales and distribution of the Mobberley plant and, according to Harris, will retain the 380 staff now employed there.
Harris was optimistic about the future, despite Ilford's difficulties over the past year. He said: 'Ilford Photo is profitable and solvent.
The receiver had to decide whether to keep the company trading or not, but we had such great support from our customers that the business came back up off the floor. Black-and-white has been declining by 5-7% per year, and last year it declined by 20-30%. I think next year it will be the same, then the decline will flatten out as we reach the core market of fine art, student and specialist black-and-white photographers. We plan to be the last man standing in black-and-white imaging.'
Source: © Incisive Media Investments Ltd 2004
******************************
Well I guess I don't have to give up Ilford HP5 film or their multigrade fiber paper that I use. It's nice to see that there is a core group of companies that will stick with black and white, it's good because not everyone's going to switch to inkejet and digital.
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