Harman Technology (Ilford) 2018 results

[jrhilton]

In case anyone is interested Harman Technology Limited's 2018 financial results are now available for free download on UK Companies House.

Highlights were a 4% growth in paper volume (first in the companies history) and film sales saw a 1% volume increase. Interesting numbers as they quote the volume and not £ growth values! I would suggest these numbers don't support a large scale "revival" in analogue though but do show small amounts of growth.

 

[AgX]

That 1% increase in film sales is not what Henning Serger is telling us all the time...

 

[Bikerider]

The overall picture is one for hope especially the directors statement where they say that paper sales are up on last year. At least they seem to be in a reasonable financial condition, whilst their overall profit is not enormous is showing progression towards the resurgence of film based photography.

AGX, bear in mind these figures are for 2018 and here we are closer to 2020. That is the way that financial reports from Companies House are released, so some of the actual information will also certainly be out of date and we will have to wait until next year for the picture and actual situation as it is today. In my limited financial opinion it is not a scene which we should be overly concerned.

 

[Henning Serger]

You have to read completely. Then you will understand.
1. Harman technolgy has increasing film sales for several years (look at the former reports).
2. In 2018 they still suffered from the insolvency of their US distributor (they could not sell as much as needed). The US market is their most important single market. Without this problem their film sales would have been significantly higher.
3. As colour film is much more popular than BW film, the film revival is also showing more strength in the colour film market. E.g. Kodak now needs three-shifts a day for 35mm film converting/finishing to keep up with demand. Fujifilm also see significantly increasing demand for their colour films (also facing some production bottlenecks).
4. If you talk to the main players in the industry, the distributors and the labs, (almost) all are reporting increasing demand for film.

Best regards,
Henning

 

[Tom Kershaw]

3. As colour film is much more popular than BW film, the film revival is also showing more strength in the colour film market. E.g. Kodak now needs three-shifts a day for 35mm film converting/finishing to keep up with demand. Fujifilm also see significantly increasing demand for their colour films (also facing some production bottlenecks).

Best regards,
Henning

I think this may be a point sometimes neglected on Photrio which seems to be more monochrome oriented, including darkroom work.

 

[pentaxuser]

That 1% increase in film sales is not what Henning Serger is telling us all the time...

In addition to that, what I found interesting is that paper sales have increased more than film and yet it seems to me that most newcomers to film do not use darkroom paper or even have a darkroom. However under the category of paper might be a rise in other paper such as inkjet.

As a darkroom person I still worry more about the potential loss of darkroom paper than film. RA4 paper might be safer in the long term as most minilabs print on RA4.

I remain a little pessimistic on balance

pentaxuser

 

[Ste_S]

3. As colour film is much more popular than BW film, the film revival is also showing more strength in the colour film market. E.g. Kodak now needs three-shifts a day for 35mm film converting/finishing to keep up with demand. Fujifilm also see significantly increasing demand for their colour films (also facing some production bottlenecks).

Judging by the difficulty Kodak has keeping 35mm Portra 400 (best selling C41 ?) on the shelves I can believe that.

 

[AgX]

In addition to that, what I found interesting is that paper sales have increased more than film and yet it seems to me that most newcomers to film do not use darkroom paper or even have a darkroom. However under the category of paper might be a rise in other paper such as inkjet.

Yes, a increase of sales of halide paper, moreover greater than for film, would be even more surprising.

 

[kb3lms]

Kodak now needs three-shifts a day for 35mm film converting/finishing to keep up with demand.

Really? I had not heard that until I read it just now. That's great news!

I understand that it's 3 very downsized shifts from years way in the past, but still....

 

[foc]

I think this is appropriate

 

[Agulliver]

Ilford is surely already the market leader in B&W film by some margin, and the majority of people buying film are buying colour film. Just because most of the people here on Photrio use more B&W than colour (certainly I do) doesn't negate the fact that out there in the big wide world things are different. However the big upswing in film sales has been since the spring of 2019, not the 2018 financial year. It will be interesting to see the figures for Ilford and other film manufacturers for the current year.

I've already noted that my local camera shop cannot get hold of Kodak Color Plus 200 in 135 nor Fuji 400H in 120 because the supplier has been out of stock for more than two months. Henning says this pattern is seen worldwide with significant backlog of C41 films. I talk to the owners of my local store a lot and while that does only give me the UK picture, they're certain that they're selling a *lot* more film than they did in 2018...mostly colour film. They're getting people coming in buying film cameras and film, and also people who have dusted off old cameras and want to buy a battery and a single roll of film to try it. And these people keep coming back for more film. I saw something similar in Cardiff when I visited a camera shop there.

However I also know that this isn't the story everywhere, other Photrio users will tell you that nobody buys film in their area.

 

[Henning Serger]

Really? I had not heard that until I read it just now. That's great news!

Yes, really.
Otherwise I would not have posted it! I have said it several times, and will say it again: I am only posting here when I am absolutely sure about the facts!
And the facts given above are directly from Kodak. Independently from two different sources. Absolutely reliable sources, working for Kodak in high positions for decades.
And:
At the "Leica Experience Days: Analoge Fotografie" (see the other thread) Kodak Alaris Germany was there, too. And they confirmed it.

And, by the way, also official information: Fujifilm is converting/finishing their Instax films in three-shifts per day operation for years now because of the increasing demand (increasing since 2004 (!!) every year without interruption!). For Instax they also had to invest in additional production capacities. And just recently they said that they don't see market saturation yet and expect the growth story to be continued. In their last fiscal year they sold 10 million (!!) Instax cameras. Instax is now the most successful camera category on the market, significantly surpassing digital compact cameras, DSLRs and DSLMs (for comaprison see also http://cipa.jp/stats/dc_e.html ).
My local camera store is selling 2,000 instax film packs every month.

Best regards,
Henning

 

[Henning Serger]

Ilford is surely already the market leader in B&W film by some margin,

I would be careful with such statements. Because there are some significant differences between markets. And please do not underestimate Kodak. They are very strong in BW, too. Tri-X is extremely popular and Kodak claims it is the best selling BW film globally. So far I have not heard that anyone from the industry (including Ilford) has contradictet to that and has proved otherwise.
And also please don't underestimate the sales volume of Foma, too. Especially in more price-sensitive markets Foma is very popular and selling lots of film.
By the way: Foma as a company is significantly bigger than Harman technology (with about 50% more employees).

However the big upswing in film sales has been since the spring of 2019, not the 2018 financial year.

On a global scale, 2018 has already been quite a good year for film sales with significant increase. E.g. both Kodak Alaris Germany and Fujifilm Germany reported big backorders for film at Photokina last September. Both together had about 1 million films on backorder (!) at time of Photokina. This year it is even more. And these numbers are for Germany only.
Already at Photokina last year Fujifilm made their big official commitment to film saying they will of course continue film production in the long term (see attachment).
In Germany the film revival is more 'moderate' compared to some other major markets. The increase rates are lower. The reason for that is a quite positive one: Germany (and Japan) have had a relatively high film per capita demand even during the "digital revolution". The film market / film infrastructure here in Germany has stayed on a much higher / better level compared to most other markets. Therefore now the increasing rates are lower compared to most other markets, which come from a much lower level. If you start at lower levels of course it is easier to get higher growth rates.
Partly we currently see the highest growth rates in film demand (in %) in those markets which were "bombed" during the "digital revolution".

Best regards,
Henning

 

[wyofilm]

Given that Fujifilm is re-releasing Acros 100, I bet the B&W market is doing well.

 

[dutchsteammachine]

Preserve the culture of Photography?

AHAHAHAHAH. no

Tell that to people who scrapped all instant factory equipment instead of selling it to Impossible.

 

[Henning Serger]

Preserve the culture of Photography?
AHAHAHAHAH. no
Tell that to people who scrapped all instant factory equipment instead of selling it to Impossible.

Honestly, there is no really reliable source for the statement that "all instant factory equipment" was scrapped. Only the usual internet BS.
I know of one (more reliable) source that said parts of the packing machinery were re-built for Instax production to keep up with the increasing demand. But that wasn't officially confirmed either.

But, more important:
This idea that you can simply buy machines from Fujifilm and then produce FP100c or 3000B again was a wet dream / fantasy by people who have no knowledge at all about film manufacturing. To produce these films you need
- the Fujifilm emulsion making machinery
- the Fujifilm coating machinery
- the Fujifilm staff (emulsionist and engineers)
- the Fujifilm converting / finishing / packing machinery including staff.
Of course Fujifilm cannot sell its emulsion making and coating machinery. Because that is needed for their other - profitable and demanded - film products. And of course they also cannot let their employees go.
And with just the converting machinery you cannot make films on the quality level of FP100C / 3000B. Period! It does not work at all. Film production is much too complex for such simple solutions ( I have seen five film factories from the inside, including the Polaroid factory in Enschede; I know how difficult film production is).

And yes: Preserve the Culture of Photography.
Fujifilm has exactly done that by saving colour transparency film! They alone have saved it when Kodak stopped all reversal film production in 2012.
Fujifilm instead continued production of several colour reversal films and also the E6 chemistry. And the chemistry both for professional labs and their E6 kit for home users.
Because of that the global infrastructure for E6 has been kept alive for the last years!
And only because of that Kodak had even the chance at all to come back with one transparency film. If Fujifilm would have done the same as Kodak - stopping all colour reversal film production - then the whole global E6 infrastructure would have been (almost) dead by now. And Kodak would have never re-introduced Ektachrome! Because with not enough E6 labs worldwide they would have never dared to re-intreduce Ektachrome.

I am very thankful that Kodak have finally realized they made a mistake by stopping reversal film production.And that they have Ektachrome again in their line.
But I also know who deserve a very big "thank you", too: Fujifilm. They made it possible that Ektachrome could come back. Without them and their permanent commitment to reversal film and chemistry production, we would have never seen Ektachrome back.

Best regards,
Henning

 

[Nodda Duma]

Henning is right and if you don’t understand how things are made you won’t catch his point: machines are just machines. Buying machinery only saves you capital costs.

Far more important is expertise and corporate knowledge...the people. That cannot be easily bought, moved, transferred, etc. You can try to argue that point but you would be wrong.

He has a great example. E-6 is alive today because people (most likely a frighteningly small number of executives) at Fuji made the decision to keep it alive. The production equipment is important, but it just does what it’s told to do.

 

[Henning Serger]

Henning is right and if you don’t understand how things are made you won’t catch his point: machines are just machines. Buying machinery only saves you capital costs.
Far more important is expertise and corporate knowledge...the people. That cannot be easily bought, moved, transferred, etc. You can try to argue that point but you would be wrong.

Exactly Jason, the chemists, emulsioneers and engineers are really the decisive factor in such a high(est)-technology production like film is.

If some members here have any doubt, just ask our other members from the industry here with decades of experience like Ron Mowrey, Robert Shanebrook or Mirko Böddecker. Or at least have a look at Robert Shanebrooks outstanding book "Making Kodak Film".
At my factory visits I have also talked to young chemists and engineers. They all have had excellent education at their universities. But even chemists with Ph.D. need another several years of intensive training and education on the job to be completely able to do what is necessary to deliver the needed highest quality level of work.

Best regards,
Henning

 

[AgX]

Me and PE repeatedly hinted at that coming bottleneck already many years ago, but were rather seen as doomsday preachers then.

 

[Drew B.]

That 1% increase in film sales is not what Henning Serger is telling us all the time...

What if the existing numbers are fabulous....then a 1 % increase is great!

 

[AgX]

We are speaking of relational changes, in the context of market trends. In such context the absolute values do not matter.

 

[Tom Kershaw]

At my factory visits I have also talked to young chemists and engineers. They all have had excellent education at their universities. But even chemists with Ph.D. need another several years of intensive training and education on the job to be completely able to do what is necessary to deliver the needed highest quality level of work.

Best regards,
Henning

I hope we remember the importance of these experienced experts and not think that manufacturing analogue photography can be simply maintained by fashion...

Tom

 

[jrhilton]

And also please don't underestimate the sales volume of Foma, too. Especially in more price-sensitive markets Foma is very popular and selling lots of film. By the way: Foma as a company is significantly bigger than Harman technology (with about 50% more employees).

Revenue for FOMA BOHEMIA spol. s r.o. (the company that the website says makes the film etc) for the year ended Dec/2017 was €9,480m EUR (vs £21m GBP for Harman), and FOMA MEDICAL spol. s r.o. was €1.27m EUR. With employee info for 2019 stated as 100 to 199 for FOMA BOHEMIA spol. s r.o. vs 192 for Harman Technology. I'm interested to know how you make out that it is a significantly bigger company than Harman Technology as the financials and headcount don't seem to support this assertion at all?

 

[Ste_S]

Revenue for FOMA BOHEMIA spol. s r.o. (the company that the website says makes the film etc) for the year ended Dec/2017 was €9,480m EUR (vs £21m GBP for Harman), and FOMA MEDICAL spol. s r.o. was €1.27m EUR. With employee info for 2019 stated as 100 to 199 for FOMA BOHEMIA spol. s r.o. vs 192 for Harman Technology. I'm interested to know how you make out that it is a significantly bigger company than Harman Technology as the financials and headcount don't seem to support this assertion at all?

Fomapan make less of a range also - five products (Fompan 100,200,400,R and Retropan). vs Ilford's ten (Pan F, FP4, HP5, Delta 100,400,3200, XP2, SFX, Kentmere 100, 400)

 

[Henning Serger]

I'm interested to know how you make out that it is a significantly bigger company than Harman Technology as the financials and headcount don't seem to support this assertion at all?

As written above, I have referred to the aggregated workforce (about 300; source: Foma at Photokina), not the revenue. Maybe I should have made that more clear. And I referred to the whole company with its four silver-halide products parts (NDT, Dental, BW, Special).

Best regards,
Henning