Moderator: E.J. Peiker

All times are UTC-05:00

  
« Previous topic | Next topic »  
Reply to topic  
 First unread post  | 5 posts | 
by Royce Howland on Sat Dec 07, 2013 9:17 pm
User avatar
Royce Howland
Forum Contributor
Posts: 11719
Joined: 12 Jan 2005
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Member #:00460
Swiss company Ilford Imaging, one of the last 2 direct corporate descendents of the Ilford photographic materials company with over a century of history, may be done for. They have experienced financial troubles a-plenty over the past years, most recently with corporate take-overs, sell-offs and failed turn-arounds as they continued to produce things such as their popular line of digital inkjet media. Including my favorite go-to paper, Ilford Gold Fibre Silk. (Which has been giving me fits with feed jams over the last year. Coincidence?)

It's being reported over the past few days that Ilford Imaging has hit a financial brick wall after several "last minute" deals since the summer of this year have ultimately all fallen through. The company may be now completely insolvent and essentially has informed a receivership court that it can't continue to operate. It's being cut off by suppliers unless all materials ordered are pre-payed (common in this kind of situation), and may have stopped paying employees essential to operations. The company already was in receivership since earlier this year, and attempting to find new investors or a buyer to back its latest turn-around plan. Apparently some 20 potential investors all turned the opportunity down, the last one withdrawing in late November. It may be up to the court or an appointed receiver to now decide the disposition of whatever remains.

This is a shame, but shows that the upheaval of the photographic world fostered by digital is still continuing to play out, taking more victims of once dominant industry players. If you like Ilford Gold Fibre Silk or any of their other inkjet media a lot, you might want to obtain whatever stocks of it you can...

Check the following link for a longer story on this; use Google to translate it if you don't read German.
http://www.nzz.ch/wirtschaft/equity/fot ... 1.18198470

And here's a couple of shorter related reports in English:
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/ph ... insolvency
http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/20 ... witzerland
Royce Howland
 

by SantaFeJoe on Sun Dec 08, 2013 12:23 am
User avatar
SantaFeJoe
Forum Contributor
Posts: 8622
Joined: 28 Jan 2012
Location: Somewhere Out In The Wilds
Too bad! I really liked the Ilford inkjet papers I have used for several years now. They have been a major contributor to the photo industry over the years. Cibachrome/Ilfocrome was great during the film years.

Joe
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.  -Pablo Picasso
 

by Joerg Rockenberger on Sun Dec 08, 2013 8:18 am
User avatar
Joerg Rockenberger
Forum Contributor
Posts: 936
Joined: 7 Mar 2011
Location: Berlin, Germany
IT Supplies has a sale of Ilford papers with 25% off... Joerg

https://www.itsupplies.com/IlfordPapers
 

by Royce Howland on Fri Jan 03, 2014 12:34 am
User avatar
Royce Howland
Forum Contributor
Posts: 11719
Joined: 12 Jan 2005
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Member #:00460
Looks confirmed that the Ilford Imaging plant is shut down and all staff have been laid off.
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/ph ... wn-factory

The company is still trading, though, and posts to blog.ilford.com are still coming out as recently as yesterday. (Though the blog posts could have been created earlier and set for timed release.) So there's some vestige of life still there, for the time being. With no staff being paid, no new paper production, and no suppliers dealing with them, however... well, that's about as grim a prognosis as it gets short of liquidation.
Royce Howland
 

by Rocky Sharwell on Fri Jan 03, 2014 9:45 am
Rocky Sharwell
Lifetime Member
Posts: 2994
Joined: 21 Aug 2003
Member #:00054
I feel bad for the employees as well as the customers who seem to really like the paper..
Rocky Sharwell
 

Display posts from previous:  Sort by:  
5 posts | 
  

Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group