Ian Grant
Subscriber
The recent problems with Ilford & Forte are due to a downfall in sales, but is that a actually strictly true.
We are in reality being manipulated by the retailers and wholesalers, as photo-chains expand by acquisition, both in the amateur & professional markets, their level of warehouse stocks constantly decreases and like supermarkets they now order at the last possible moment. With the rapid onslaught of digital imaging many companies panicked thinking they would be left with unsold conventional materials on their shelves
So imagine a chain of photo stores who would have had a rack full of B&W papers 3 or 4 years ago in every store, now if your lucky they have some RC paper in the back room. Now while this is my experience here in the UK I'm sure it's the same in America, Australia, Europe etc, except perhaps the larger stores.
One large chain with many hundreds of stores suddenly reducing stocks has the effect of dramatically reducing factory output, and this is what has hit Ilford & Forte, along with Agfa,
Kodak being cash rich weather the storms but they'd already made the shrewd move by switching production to low salary localities. Fuji look on wisely having made almost perfect forecasts of market trends, talking to a senior UK employee I was told they only slightly under estimated the switch to digital but it worked out in their favour, and as they buy in their B&W materials it's not really a problem.
Meanwhile as die-hard users of B&W materials we now have to find and nurture better suppliers who take our needs and concerns into consideration if they want our business. A few names spring to mind Fotimpex in Germany, J & C (Fotoimpex US), Silverprint in London and I'm sure there are a great many more elsewhere but some how we need to make sure the manufacturers realise we want to buy their materials on an ongoing basis.
Here in the UK the major amateur chain sells a good variety of products and used to boast they supplied everything, in reality now they sell 120 film, a very limited range of dev, fix etc to process it but no they can't supply 120 neg files as they aren't in the catalogue, and that says it all about their attitude to customers.
We must support suppliers who have our interests at heart, and maybe we should carry larger stocks of film & paper on our own shelves. I placed a very large order in October to do just that although I'm still waiting delivery !!!!
We are in reality being manipulated by the retailers and wholesalers, as photo-chains expand by acquisition, both in the amateur & professional markets, their level of warehouse stocks constantly decreases and like supermarkets they now order at the last possible moment. With the rapid onslaught of digital imaging many companies panicked thinking they would be left with unsold conventional materials on their shelves
So imagine a chain of photo stores who would have had a rack full of B&W papers 3 or 4 years ago in every store, now if your lucky they have some RC paper in the back room. Now while this is my experience here in the UK I'm sure it's the same in America, Australia, Europe etc, except perhaps the larger stores.
One large chain with many hundreds of stores suddenly reducing stocks has the effect of dramatically reducing factory output, and this is what has hit Ilford & Forte, along with Agfa,
Kodak being cash rich weather the storms but they'd already made the shrewd move by switching production to low salary localities. Fuji look on wisely having made almost perfect forecasts of market trends, talking to a senior UK employee I was told they only slightly under estimated the switch to digital but it worked out in their favour, and as they buy in their B&W materials it's not really a problem.
Meanwhile as die-hard users of B&W materials we now have to find and nurture better suppliers who take our needs and concerns into consideration if they want our business. A few names spring to mind Fotimpex in Germany, J & C (Fotoimpex US), Silverprint in London and I'm sure there are a great many more elsewhere but some how we need to make sure the manufacturers realise we want to buy their materials on an ongoing basis.
Here in the UK the major amateur chain sells a good variety of products and used to boast they supplied everything, in reality now they sell 120 film, a very limited range of dev, fix etc to process it but no they can't supply 120 neg files as they aren't in the catalogue, and that says it all about their attitude to customers.
We must support suppliers who have our interests at heart, and maybe we should carry larger stocks of film & paper on our own shelves. I placed a very large order in October to do just that although I'm still waiting delivery !!!!