Acquisition of Film Material Producers InovisCoat and FilmoTec

Arcadia4 · Nov 16, 2020

An interesting press release from North Channel Bank Germany (August), which provided financing for the acquisition of Inoviscoat and Filmotec bringing them under common ownership and control.

'North Channel Bank supports the Seal 1818 GmbH investor group in the acquisition of InovisCoat GmbH (spin-off Agfa) and FilmoTec GmbH (spin-off VEB Filmfabrik Wolfen / ORWO). The objective of this merger is to bundle the strengths in the field of analog film and to use the corresponding synergy effects in order to offer turnkey solutions for the film industry under the traditional brand “ORWO”. “Both companies occupy the niche of supplying smaller film productions with film material, a proven lucrative business segment,” says Harald Zenke, Managing Director of North Channel Bank. “We see great potential in this niche strategy and are prepared to provide financing for the merger of two long-established specialist companies, which emerged from the original company Agfa.”'

https://www.northchannelbank.de/en/...m-material-producers-inoviscoat-and-filmotec/

Seal 1818 is a private acquistion vehicle, structure below;

"The merger of the respective companies in Seal 1818 GmbH enables a bundling of the individual competences and value chains. As a result, the company can offer its customers a wide range of high-quality color and black and white films".

BradS · Nov 16, 2020

Interesting...thanks for posting this.

Craig75 · Nov 16, 2020

Good to hear "proven lucrative business segment"

Things looking good across the board in film.

Deleted member 88956 · Nov 16, 2020

Craig75 said:
Good to hear "proven lucrative business segment"

Things looking good across the board in film.

Until you hear someone saying "film is dead" and violence in the streets ensues.

Craig75 · Nov 16, 2020

Witold said:
Until you hear someone saying "film is dead" and violence in the streets ensues.

At least we will have god knows how many films to document it!

AgX · Nov 16, 2020

However this is at best half of the story. But time will tell what comes out of it, especially of the emphasis on the cine-world and possible new films, whilst Kodak is still standing.

Lachlan Young · Nov 16, 2020

AgX said:
However this is at best half of the story. But time will tell what comes out of it, especially of the emphasis on the cine-world and possible new films, whilst Kodak is still standing.

It's also (as the press release states) the reunification of the remains of both western & eastern parts of Agfa.

cmacd123 · Nov 16, 2020

I wonder if this means we can look forward to ORWO n76 replacing N75?

Nodda Duma · Nov 16, 2020

I read that they would in part cater to small businesses like mine to coat limited runs of film with emulsions of my design or specifications (tailored to run on their lines of course). I’m guessing most of the film manufacturing companies will do that.

mshchem · Nov 16, 2020

They better be ready to buy Kodak if they intend to play in cinema films. How long has it been since anyone other than Kodak (or Fuji) made cinema films? Was the last EU company Agfa or Ferrania? Or former Eastern Europe?? I have no idea. It wouldn't take a helluva lot of imagination to make a boat load of money off the kiddies with some sort of analog product. Look at Fuji and Instax.

Deleted member 88956 · Nov 16, 2020

mshchem said:
They better be ready to buy Kodak if they intend to play in cinema films. How long has it been since anyone other than Kodak (or Fuji) made cinema films? Was the last EU company Agfa or Ferrania? Or former Eastern Europe?? I have no idea. It wouldn't take a helluva lot of imagination to make a boat load of money off the kiddies with some sort of analog product. Look at Fuji and Instax.

Kodak deserves to be bought out by someone who wants to stay in business.

cmacd123 · Nov 16, 2020

mshchem said:
How long has it been since anyone other than Kodak (or Fuji) made cinema films? Was the last EU company Agfa or Ferrania? Or former Eastern Europe?? .

Filmotec, has made BLACK AND WHITE cine film since they opened. This includes the various Lab films, including sound recording films and intermediate films used to make "Back Up" separation negatives for long term storage or special effects. Their has been some mystery about who has been coating master rolls for filmotec. One might assume that their new corporate sibling may have that duty in the future.

As far as colour Camera negative film, yes, you are only able to buy Kodak Vison film these days. And I understand that AGFA of belgum is not longer making colour print film or sound film. Fuji still shows their B&W separation film, but I am not sure what sort of minimum orders that would be required to get some. They have discontinued all their other Movie Stock.

mshchem · Nov 17, 2020

Witold said:
Kodak deserves to be bought out by someone who wants to stay in business.

I was hoping that the Eastman Kodak and Kodak Alaris film businesses would be taken private similar to Ilford.

Right now Ilford is being run like a real company. Bringing out new products, a very enhanced presence on the web. Good job!

Deleted member 88956 · Nov 17, 2020

mshchem said:
I was hoping that the Eastman Kodak and Kodak Alaris film businesses would be taken private similar to Ilford.

Right now Ilford is being run like a real company. Bringing out new products, a very enhanced presence on the web. Good job!

It is indeed sad to see what happened to Kodak brand. I just bought Kodak's Data Book for Applied Photography from the 1970's in 5 volumes. Going through these pages makes one wanna cry. It's not about nostalgia, but rather the effort into making that kind of data available to the marketplace.

mshchem · Nov 17, 2020

Witold said:
It is indeed sad to see what happened to Kodak brand. I just bought Kodak's Data Book for Applied Photography from the 1970's in 5 volumes. Going through these pages makes one wanna cry. It's not about nostalgia, but rather the effort into making that kind of data available to the marketplace.

Yes, it's really a loss. I have a lot of old Kodak publications, it's amazing.

AgX · Nov 17, 2020

Nodda Duma said:
I read that they would in part cater to small businesses like mine to coat limited runs of film with emulsions of my design or specifications (tailored to run on their lines of course). I’m guessing most of the film manufacturing companies will do that.

No, I read that as further supplying small movie productions. (In German the term "movie" in its generic meaning is "Film".)

Ernst-Jan · Nov 17, 2020

Very interesting, this could give some nice new products. Downside of this is that both companies are, as far as I know, not able to confect the film master roll in something that we can put in our (still) cameras?

AgX · Nov 17, 2020

Filmotec has the means to slice, perforate, sign and spool as bulk rolls.

Deleted member 88956 · Nov 17, 2020

Ernst-Jan said:
Very interesting, this could give some nice new products. Downside of this is that both companies are, as far as I know, not able to confect the film master roll in something that we can put in our (still) cameras?

But confectioning is the least technologically challenging part of the chain. If this goes deeper into film products with intent to cater to still photography ... because there is market to support it, then it should not pose a problem. In the interim there is always the Ladies of Shanghai approach to fill that void.

AgX · Nov 17, 2020

There is no hint whatsever that Orwo or Inoviscoat will turn to consumer film (aside of the ongoing tollproductions and the Polaroid project).

Moreover they stated recently that their intention was in a third direction, that of non-cine institutional films, and they meanwhile released a respective product.
Thus there already is some contradiction in their statements.

This is the typical case of some press statement appearing and people jumping to it and making assessments based on just what they wish to happen.

Deleted member 88956 · Nov 17, 2020

AgX said:
There is no hint whatsever that Orwo or Inoviscoat will turn to consumer film (aside of the ongoing tollproductions and the Polaroid project).

Moreover they stated recently that their intention was in a third direction, that of non-cine institutional films, and they meanwhile released a respective product.
Thus there already is some contradiction in their statements.

This is the typical case of some press statement appearing and people jumping to it and making assessments based on just what they wish to happen.

I think it's more about what many wish would happen, so these kind of news makes it easier to jump on and pray.

miha · Nov 17, 2020

Isn't InovisCoat already coating some of the Lomography colour films as well as Bergger Pachro, so consumer films?

halfaman · Nov 17, 2020

Creating a business for still photography would be great, I hope it is within their plans.

Ernst-Jan · Nov 17, 2020

AgX said:
There is no hint whatsever that Orwo or Inoviscoat will turn to consumer film (aside of the ongoing tollproductions and the Polaroid project).

Hmm this remind me of the fact that de production facility not really belongs to Inoviscoat but is shared with "Inovisproject" or so? A seperate company that works for Polaroid. Anyhow interesting what will happen. Will both companies join?

Anyhow, apperently they can make colour / RA4 paper but not film?

On this page http://www.inoviscoat.de/maerkte/photographie/

Schwarzweißpapiere auf Baryt-Papierträger (Fine Art Kontaktpapiere, Multigradationspapier)
Schwarzweißpapiere auf PE-Papierträger (Multigradationspapier)
Colournegativpapier auf PE-Papierträger (Prozess KODAK RA-4 oder Agfa AP94 kompatibel)

AgX · Nov 17, 2020

-) Their history is a conglomerate of legal firms respectively of refirmation as are connections with other firms, not communicated to the outside world. I leave it to others to speculate on this. At least it hints at the complex situation within that industry.

-) That listing by Inoviscoat shows what they can do on the photographic field. That they left out classic colour film does not mean that they can't do it. They explicetely hinted at that in the long past.

Acquisition of Film Material Producers InovisCoat and FilmoTec

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