Harman announce price rise

[Steve@f8]

5-8%, read here:
https://emulsive.org/articles/news/...il&utm_term=0_c4b55b017a-d48067bf7f-189261701

 

[Disappointed_Horse]

Glad I bought some when it was on sale on Ilford's website last week.

 

[BrianShaw]

Sad to read... but whatever it takes to stay in business.

 

[logan2z]

Apparently it's a price 'adjustment', prices may go down for some. But here in the US it sounds like it'll be an increase. Bummer, but I'll pay it to help keep Ilford afloat.

 

[warden]

Virtually every entity on earth is using the pandemic as an excuse for permanent price “adjustments”.

Ilford's price increase isn't much greater than the current inflation rate of 5.3% in the US. What would you suggest they do?

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

I'm sure we'll see the increase here. We always do.

 

[mshchem]

The inflation thing is just getting going. Everything is increasing in price. My property taxes are based on similar properties selling in my neighborhood. Wow, the increases in the last few years are hard to swallow.
Ilford prices are very reasonable considering everything.
MHOFWIW
Mike

 

[JPD]

I wish that the 18x24 cm size of Ilford papers came in boxes of 50 instead of 100, and that the 24x30 and 30x40 came in boxes of 25 instead of 50.

Less money to pay for someone like me who doesn't print that often but who wants to use Ilford's quality papers. And then it's also easier to afford to buy both glossy and matte papers (or pearl).

 

[warden]

Inflation is a measure of price increases.

Yes. For Ilford. And for you and me. What do you suggest Ilford do, ignore their higher cost of doing business?

 

[AgX]

Ilford's price increase isn't much greater than the current inflation rate of 5.3% in the US. What would you suggest they do?

Well, in Britain it is about 2% and in Germany until half a year ago it even was negative.

 

[warden]

Well, in Britain it is about 2% and in Germany until half a year ago it even was negative.

Ours is higher because of the grand fleecing. ;-)

 

[mshchem]

Inflation is a measure of price increases.

The pandemic is leading to a grand fleecing across the board. Totally foreseeable, nevertheless unstoppable.

The USA just issues more debt. Increasing the money supply decreases the value of the dollars already in circulation. 500 years ago when the Spanish brought in enormous amounts of gold and silver from the New World prices soared in Europe. It's not rocket science.

 

[markjwyatt]

Freestyle: FP4+ up 23%, HP5 up 17% since I last bought in March, April, and May.

 

[AgX]

My point is that inflation rate may be a bad reference point. It may be a good one for the USA, a bad one for Germany.
Harman themselves refer to rise of raw stock costs. This rise may not even be related to inflation.

 

[removed account4]

I'm so glad I bought the 40lbs of silver nitrate when I did !
grande fleecing?
im stoked cause I sold my 1983 Subaru justy for 60,000$ because
well its a used car and somebody needed a cheap car, after all when I got it
it was JUST[y] over 1,000$ ... I told him to wear a raincoat when he gave me my cash cause he was
well you know gonna get soaked, then shellacked and then fleeced.

 

[mshchem]

I'm so glad I bought the 40lbs of silver nitrate when I did !

Sell half, the rest would be free!

 

[warden]

My point is that inflation rate may be a bad reference point. It may be a good one for the USA, a bad one for Germany.
Harman themselves refer to rise of raw stock costs. This rise may not even be related to inflation.

Yes, they are pretty upfront about the reason for the price increase, and the increase where I live is likely to be a bit more than inflation, which makes it a non-news event for me. I don’t think Ilford is fleecing anyone.

 

[BrianShaw]

Completely concur!

In my case I have a loving spouse who helps me deal with my skeptical anger over seemingly unexplainable price hikes. She does the shopping for whatever I need and if I don't see the prices I can't be angry about it.

 

[pentaxuser]

I can't find anything on the Ilford site about this. Has anyone else found it on the IlfordPhoto site? I even did a search on Ilford Price Increase on the site and it found nothing.

The Emulsive announcement seemed to suggest the prices announcement ( be it up/down or no change) are to take effect in July but we are already almost mid-way through July

pentaxuser

 

[warden]

1a. I'm not singling out Ilford. t

I just did a little googling to see if Ilford's claim of increased costs smells fishy.
Just looking at feb 2020 to feb 2021.
The cost of labor is up in the UK if I understand the UK government web site I just visited.
Ditto the cost of silver, a dramatic increase from feb '20 to feb '21.
International shipping costs are increasing, and at an all time high depending on the source reporting.
Gas and electricity also appear to be on an upward trend in the UK compared to Feb 2020. (I assume all their film is made there but I don't know)

I'm not an expert on their business and the web sites I visited seemed legit to me but I didn't vet them. I feel no need to dig further. This price increase does not seem fishy to me at all.

 

[warden]

Right, but Ilford doesn't necessarily need to be fishy for the price increase to be artificial to some degree. If Ilford is truly just passing on its increased costs, that doesn't mean we aren't being screwed, just that it isn't Ilford doing the screwing directly.

There are many inputs to production. Ilford has to pay for its utilities, raw materials etc. As you've highlighted, all of these inputs have increased in price throughout the pandemic. You think that's all legit? There's a huge amount of hosing going on all over the world, across all sectors of the global economy, because it's a perfect opportunity to do so. Every going concern is increasing prices whether or not costs have truly gone up. And it will all be permanent.

Any large scale negative event inevitably becomes a gigantic wealth transfer. But I'll stop there or else...soapbox

Yeah I'm not getting into wealth transfer arguments. Ilford claimed increased costs so I looked into it, and that is all I did. I'm convinced it's truth.

When they increase prices like this, my assumption is they're correcting for recent price increases, predicted future prices, and also trying to put off the next very unpopular price increase as long as possible. Photographers often switch between Kodak and Ilford on price alone so I imagine Ilford is exactly as reluctant as they say they are to increase prices. They know they'll lose customers but what can they do? They must earn profit.

 

[relistan]

I doubt this is pandemic-related in the main.

Britain left the EU and the effect of the exit hit at the beginning of the year and they are now paying import duties on materials from the continent. This includes all the triacetate they buy from Germany among other materials. I think we can safely assume that they are now using materials purchased post-Brexit and are reflecting the change in their pricing they pass on. Additionally, for buyers in Europe, suppliers will be paying import duties bringing film in from Britain now as well. Brexit is bad all around for Ilford.

 

[jtk]

One of the ways Ilford profits is use of Asian (bamboo) weeds rather than American/Canadian wood.

 

[Ernst-Jan]

Virtually every entity on earth is using the pandemic as an excuse for permanent price “adjustments”.

If you think they just take the pandemic as a silly excuse, you are wrong.
It is a matter of supply and demand. When demand rises and due to ilness/restrictions the production stays equal or even decreseas this will have consequences on the price.
For example, as I am engineer working at a machine factory, prices of steel not only have increased a lot, sometimes certain qualities of steel or certain thicknesses are not available on the moment. Geared electro motors had a delivery time of 3 weeks, it's now 3 months. Some suppliers don't even send an order confirmation.

The same applies for wood. Electronic components is also drama.

So yes I truly believe that Ilford also have difficulties to get materials and that they got more expensive.

 

[pbromaghin]

From an online article to day:

"The Producer Price Index rose 7.3 percent in June from 12 months earlier, the largest demand since 12-month data were first introduced in 2010. Compared with May, the index rose one percent. On average, this index rose by around 0.2 percent per month in the pre-pandemic Trump administration."