Adox raising their prices by 25% ??

[J Rollinger]

I was just placing an order with Freestyle and noticed that Adox products are 25% higher than 2 weeks ago. Adox 25 120 went from $4 to $5 a roll and Adox MCP310 VC RC 8x10/100 was $46.99 and now its $59.99!!!! Is this increase from Adox or Freestyle?

 

[mikebarger]

My guess it is the currency exchange rate, at least a good chunk of it.

just 2 cents worth.

Mike

 

[J Rollinger]

The dollar is getting that bad? WOW!

 

[23mjm]

A: Additional cost to import?
B: Security stuff maybe?
C: Too tight a profit margin?
D: All of the above?

I vote D All of the above

 

[brian d]

On their homepage they have a news article about rerouted shipments because of airport x-rays etc. the prices seem to have went up the same day that they posted that little bit of news
Cant decide whether to be mad at Freestyle or the US govt

 

[Curt]

It's from Adox and Freestyle.

 

[Yamaotoko]

...this may be a redundant question, but I wonder if the prices of Arista products that come from Adox will then rise as well? That's of course, assuming the price rise had come from Adox due to production etc.

 

[Simon R Galley]

Dear All,

Look at the price per ounce of silver 4 weeks ago and the price today.

Simon. ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

 

[AgX]

Agfa have also raised their prices due to this.

 

[edp]

I guess it's time to stock the freezer then, before the prices increases really start to bite.

 

[ColinRH]

Looks like silver nitrate has nearly doubled in price in UK in last 5 months. Not being a chemist I don't know, but I assume it is made from silver

 

[23mjm]

Thank you Simon!!! Never would have thought of that--knowledge is power.

Around $18/oz in August to just under $28/oz today--that's going to hurt!

 

[cmo]

So, how much silver is in one film?

If you have the answer you know that this is just the same kind of reasons for price increases that the oil industry will tell you next time they raise the prices.

 

[Simon R Galley]

Dear CMO,

I do know the answer : and when you have to buy silver by the tonne its a huge increase in raw material costs.

We have NOT increased our prices, but we are obviously monitoring and reviewing the situation on a daily basis.

Kind Regards

Simon. ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

 

[CBG]

... this is just the same kind of reasons for price increases that the oil industry will tell you next time they raise the prices.

Well, thanks for clearing that up. Gosh, I didn't know my film was bought in a world wide commodities market, and that idiot speculators drive up prices every time they think demand will bump up and make them a profit. Here, I was thinking mfrs sold to distributors who then sold to the corner photo store - all at somewhat known pricing. I'll have to pay better attention.

 

[pentaxuser]

The key issue here is: what proportion of the total cost of production, including fixed overheads is the "silver cost". In the case of any increase in price over a relatively short period such as a 2/3 months most costs are the same so the consumer is left trying to work out why an increase, even a large one in one raw material cost has had such a large increase in price.

What make the consumer more suspicious is that few if any producers seem to be able to point to similar drops in price when the raw material in question then falls in price.

There may well be good reasons for the price rise in question but those reasons never seem to see the light of day. Just in the last few days in the U.K. we have seen the "utilities"( gas and electricity) regulator launch an inquiry into why the profit from the dual tariff( those taking their gas and electricity from the same supplier ) has risen the way it has.

The utility complanies say the regulator has misunderstood the real figures and has looked at price rises too simplistically but when an arm of the government launches an inquiry into price rises due to what the companies would say is lack of knowledge of how price rises occur then we shouldn't be surprised when the consumer can't quite make the correct connections in trying to understand why a large increase has taken place.

There might be good reasons for it but lack of a full explanation with incontrovertible evidence to back it up will leave consumers suspicious.

Simom Galley's company is a user of gas and electricity on a large scale and you can bet that it too and rightly so will want to have a full explanation of why utility prices has resulted in a sudden change to profit levels - allegedly.

pentaxuser

 

[MattKing]

For items like silver, one probably also needs to add in the costs of the money needed to buy it in bulk - I expect Ilford buys it in bulk ahead of time, and most likely there is some borrowed money involved.

 

[Moopheus]

The key issue here is: what proportion of the total cost of production, including fixed overheads is the "silver cost". In the case of any increase in price over a relatively short period such as a 2/3 months most costs are the same so the consumer is left trying to work out why an increase, even a large one in one raw material cost has had such a large increase in price.

For one thing, the film companies are not producers of the commodity (silver), but consumers; they are not like the energy companies in that respect. They're subject to the changes in the commodity markets just as much as we are. Note that Simon indicated that Ilford is not increasing their film prices as yet. I'd guess that a smaller company with a less diverse product line such as Adox may have a harder time absorbing the fluctuations. It would not surprise me if they're seeing higher distribution costs, but without someone from Adox to respond, that too is just a guess. Currency fluctuations might be an issue, but the euro is still quite a bit weaker vs. the dollar than it was a year ago. (The unwinding of the yen carry trade must be hurting Fuji quite a bit, though.)

 

[AgX]

Gosh, I didn't know my film was bought in a world wide commodities market, and that idiot speculators drive up prices every time they think demand will bump up and make them a profit. ... I'll have to pay better attention.

When Gevaert and Agfa merged they were, and remained, on equal terms concerning their shares in the new entity. However as shareholder themselves they were quite different, as Gevaert had much less capital than Bayer, who were the owner of Agfa back then.

The silver crisis of 1979, which purely originated on the sole speculation of 2 (!) guys, was driving Gevaert via their silver bills to the verge of bancrupsy. So they had to try to leave the ship as shareholder. That was the end of Gevaert as photo-company as they left that field completely. Actually Agfa-Gevaert itself was very much at stake.


So much about the influence of speculation on the photochemical industry.

 

[2F/2F]

My guess for rising film prices is business troubles due to dropping demand...but that's just a guess, of course. With the hope of being pleasantly surprised, I don't like to fool myself with the notion that film will be long for this world. Kodak and Fuji seem to be the only companies openly admitting that demand is dropping. They do it every six months, when they discontinue their latest batch of products. Meanwhile, Ilford and other companies say that demand is stable or increasing. At least someone is full of it.

 

[MaximusM3]

My guess for rising film prices is business troubles due to dropping demand...but that's just a guess, of course. With the hope of being pleasantly surprised, I don't like to fool myself with the notion that film will be long for this world. Kodak and Fuji seem to be the only companies openly admitting that demand is dropping. They do it every six months, when they discontinue their latest batch of products. Meanwhile, Ilford and other companies say that demand is stable or increasing. At least someone is full of it.

You may be right, but Kodak and Fuji are big, diversified companies, and don't put much of an effort in promoting film anymore. For smaller, film-centric companies like Ilford, and Maco/Rollei, things may actually be brighter. Just my 2c.

 

[AgX]

2F/2F,

Agfa, Fuji, Kodak (to name just the largest) all of them again and again report falling sales in general on their halide based, or rather all analogue materials. Though there are exceptions for some products and some markets where sales are even increasing.

With some small participiants of the market the situation may be quite different with their small niche showing another development.

In general here at Apug the photochemical industry is seen with a great lack of differentiation.

 

[2F/2F]

I agree that all are reporting dropping sales. This was my point. It seems odd to me that Kodak and Fuji report ("admit to," I would say) consistently falling demand, but everything is peachy for Ilford. Falling demand has not been cited as a reason for any of their price moves, at least to my recollection, yet the recent two price increases have moved them beyond my budget for most of my shooting. I still splurge for Delta 3200, but that is about it. Is the market for Ilford products really all that different than for Kodak or Fuji ones? I can see Adox, Foma, Ekfe, Rollei, etc. being in a little bit of a bubble, but not Ilford. Are they simply planning on stubbornly going down with the ship before just coming out and saying, "We are not selling enough of our products," as Kodak and Fuji have done?

 

[cmacd123]

MY guess is that Foma, Ilford and the like are seeing the demand from the former users of brands such as Forte, and AGFAphoto. Maco is a special case as they are just tagging along on what is being made in Belgium for other markets.

You can expect that Ilford will sell more Delta 3200 when folks run out of Neopan 1600 and T-Max3200 as a specific example of this effect

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

The cost increase might be related to obvious strong currency variations with the US not gaining any strength on its greenback. Film is amazingly cheap to buy in Australia from Freestyle, even with International Air shipping. Against this, however, a rise of 25% for ARISTA is quite significant and unusual.