HARMAN technology Acquires Kentmere Photographic

David A. Goldfarb · Nov 18, 2007

New thread merged with the existing thread on this topic.

ath · Dec 20, 2007

On a german forum it was mentioned, that the Kentmere plant has been shut down, the machines already dissassembled and the coating moved to the Mobberley plant.

Can anybody confirm or disprove this?

Ian Grant · Dec 20, 2007

Just read the German thread and what a load of rubbish. The poster was talking through his ****.

Ian

kraker · Dec 20, 2007

ath said:
On a german forum it was mentioned, that the Kentmere plant has been shut down, the machines already dissassembled and the coating moved to the Mobberley plant.

Can anybody confirm or disprove this?

Sounds like pure speculation to me... Even if HARMAN had wanted to do this --which isn't the case, they assure us-- .. even if they wanted to, it couldn't have happened this fast.

Sounds like a load of *beep* to me...

Edit: yeah, what Ian said ^^ ! I second that!

Thomas Bertilsson · Dec 20, 2007

It didn't sound as if this guy substantiated his claims at all, it was just what he heard as far as I can translate German.
- Thomas

ath · Dec 20, 2007

Ian Grant said:
Just read the German thread and what a load of rubbish. The poster was talking through his ****.

Ian

No need to get aggressive here. This guy states clearly that he has heard this, not more. Thats why I asked here to get informations from people, who are nearer to Ilford / Kentmere.

So, anything substantial from you?

ath · Dec 20, 2007

kraker said:
Even if HARMAN had wanted to do this --which isn't the case, they assure us

Is there anything to backup this? I read the announcement of the takeover carefully and nowhere it was mentioned, that the Kentmere plant will go on - they are only talking about the products of Kentmere, not the employees and not the plant.

Nobody in UK knowing exactly?

Ian Grant · Dec 20, 2007

Sometimes Adreas we have information that is confidential, the information I have is that Kentmere are actively seeking to expand their potential markets, and that they are trading as normal.

The poster you quoted is a spreading malicious unfounded rumours. I'm not being aggressive suggesting the poster is an idiot.

Ian

ath · Dec 20, 2007

Ian Grant said:
The poster you quoted is a spreading malicious unfounded rumours. I'm not being aggressive suggesting the poster is an idiot.

Ian

What a nice guy you are.

ath · Dec 20, 2007

Ian Grant said:
Sometimes Adreas we have information that is confidential

What is confidential regarding the fact if the Kentmere plant is still active or not?
Stop talking BS and state facts.

Bob F. · Dec 20, 2007

ath said:
What is confidential regarding the fact if the Kentmere plant is still active or not?
Stop talking BS and state facts.

Now who is being agressive?

No doubt Simon Galley will pop along when he sees this and let us know the reality. Until then I suggest holding your horses and not get into pointless flames with others.

Cheers, Bob.

David A. Goldfarb · Dec 20, 2007

Can we dial back the rhetoric, please? If not, I'll just delete all the new posts, and you can try again.

ath · Dec 20, 2007

I sent out an email to Simon asking if this is true or not.

Matt5791 · Dec 20, 2007

You can soon find out whether the plant is still there or whatever - just phone them:

01565 684000

or go there:

KENTMERE Limited
STAVELEY
KENDAL
CUMBRIA LA8 9PB

Matt

Ian Grant · Dec 20, 2007

To clarify the original German post was not made by Ath (Andreas) on the Analoge Photo Gruppe forum, APHOG a kind of German APUG.

It was made by the Forum Operator, Juergen W. Nickel and reads as follows (translated):

"The company (Kentmere) is sold, all coworkers obviously dismisses and so far I heard, even the machines should be already completely scrapped.
Does Ilford sell still further products under the name Kentmere and if, which sell then?"

Read what you want into his words, but there isn't the slightest substance of truth other than the fact that Kentmere was sold. It's a great pity that a forum operator ? owner or/moderator feels it necessary to post unsubstantiated statements of this nature on his own forum. Perhaps Herr Nickel should try reading APUG and particularly the statements by Simon Galley, or contact Kentmere himself as Matt suggests.

Ian

ath · Dec 20, 2007

Ian, I just realized, that your "translation" is from babelfish. Is your understanding of the german discussion based on machine translation?

Thomas Bertilsson · Dec 20, 2007

Andreas, can you translate it for us please? I see you're from Germany and your written English seems very good. It would be helpful. My German is very rusty.
Thanks if you decide to.
- Thomas

Thomas Bertilsson · Dec 20, 2007

Part 1:
"Die Firma ist verkauft, alle Mitarbeiter offensichtlich entlassen und soweit ich gehört habe, sogar die Maschinen sollen schon komplett verschrottet sein.
Verkauft Ilford denn noch weiterhin Produkte unter dem Namen Kentmere und wenn, was verkaufen die dann?"
Part 2:
Question from other poster:
"Woher hast du diese Information? Welchen Sinn macht es für Ilford ein Werk vollständig zu übernehmen und es zu verschrotten? Ich vermute stark, dass Ilford nicht einen überproportionalen Gewinn dieses Jahr erwirtschaftet hat um mit dem Aufkauf von Kentmere diesen enorm zu senken (Stichwort Kostenübernahme).
Gruß Jörg"
Answer:
"Es wurde Ende Oktober beim FotoForum in Münster als InsiderInfo laut hinter vorgehaltener Hand verkündet, nämlich daß die Maschinen schon demontiert waren - also nicht einmal 2 Wochen nach der Übernahme durch Harman war wohl die Fertigung von Kentmer nur noch Geschichte - ad acta - Game over.
Es ging Harman doch auch nur darum sich einen lästigen Konkurrenten vom Hals zu schaffen.
Aber Harman selber hat auch nie ein Geheimnis daraus gemacht, daß die Produktion von Kentmer Papier sofort nach Mobberley in das ILFORD-Werk verlegt wird/wurde........... Wink aber natürlich wird es weiter unter dem Namen Kentmer verkauft - aber ist da auch noch Kentmer drin???? - Ein »Chelm« der das in Frage stellt weglach
Gruss
Jürgen W. Nickel"

Photo Engineer · Dec 20, 2007

About 2 years ago, I read on the Kentmere site that they had added a new coating machines and additional workers to cope with increased orders after Kodak exited the photo paper arena.

If this is true, they have a very modern coating facilty, perhaps equal to or more modern than that of Ilford (again sorry Simon, as I have no idea). In any event, it would be wise to keep all of the most modern equipment that is available and adapt as or if the market continues to shrink.

This move was very smart on the part of all concerned.

PE

Photo Engineer · Dec 20, 2007

Regarding the German above posted by Thomas, my German is certainly rusty but the first paragraph does indeed match what Ian has posted.

The second one says essentially "where did you hear all this, can you confirm it?" Or something like that.

The third is an answer relating encounters with people who should know, telling him that Kentmere equipment is already demolished and production is being moved to Ilford.

That is about the best my rusty German can do on it. It does not prove anything one way or another, as only Simon can give us the 'real' information. But, why buy a company only then to demolish it? Sounds rather unsound to me.

PE

ath · Dec 20, 2007

Thomas,
basically no one came up with facts if this is true or not. The OP in the cited thread states, that everybody was talking about this at the Fotoforum (kind of fair) in Münster / Germany. This is also stated by another site, maintained by a well known and reliable german retailer, specialized in bw. He also cites no hard facts.

Thats why I asked here - to get an answer if this is true or not. Unfortunately this turned into a discussion about the other thread.

I'm waiting for Simons reply now.

PHOTOTONE · Dec 20, 2007

England is not a geographically large country. One of our English members who lives relatively close just needs to get in the car and motor down there and knock on Kentmere's door.

Dave Miller · Dec 21, 2007

Whilst I hope that the original Kentmere coating plant is still in operation I feel that the supposition outlined above is a distinct possibility since it is unlikely to make economic sense to buy such a business as Kentmere and keep the original plant running since this will not give maximum benefit to Harmon. From the business point of view the deal only makes sense if economies are made, and the most obvious are to move the coating to the underutilized plant at the Ilford works, and close that at Kentmere. Like others I await a less ambiguous statement of intent from Harman than that which opened this thread.

Simon R Galley · Dec 21, 2007

Dear All,

Since the takeover of KENTMERE Photographic Limited and after extensive discussions with the mangement of KENTMERE it has become obvious that the best solution going forward is to close the KENTMERE factory in Stavely in 2008 and transfer some personnel and manufacturing equipment from Stavely to the HARMAN technology facility at Mobberley in Cheshire.

We have been working closely with KENTMERE Photographic personnel who have been extremely supportive to ensure the smooth and seemless transfer of products from one facility to another. Our original statement has not changed at all, all KENTMERE monochrome products that were manufactured at Stavely will remain and will now be manufactured at Mobberley, no products will be discontinued, and we are currently looking at the base options going forward for the possible re-introduction of KENTMERE Art Classic.

We have produced very, very large stocks of KENTMERE manufactured product to ensure we have plenty of time to enable the equipment transfer from KENTMERE to HARMAN technology Limited to take place and to ensure that the Mobberley produced KENTMERE products are as close to the originals as is humanly and technically possible.

Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :

keeds · Dec 21, 2007

Thanks Simon for clearing things up. The only Kentmere paper I use is Centennial POP but obviously I hope the move of all Kentmere papers goes smoothly. Keep up the good work...

HARMAN technology Acquires Kentmere Photographic

David A. Goldfarb

Moderator

ath

Ian Grant

kraker

Thomas Bertilsson

ath

ath

Ian Grant

ath

ath

Bob F.

David A. Goldfarb

Moderator

ath

Matt5791

Ian Grant

ath

Thomas Bertilsson

Thomas Bertilsson

Photo Engineer

Photo Engineer

ath

PHOTOTONE

Dave Miller

Simon R Galley

keeds

HARMAN technology Acquires Kentmere Photographic

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Moderator

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