Those of us who lived through the doom and gloom 10 years ago with the sudden exit of Kodak from the B&W paper market, Agfa closing it's consumer film division, then the loss of Forte & more latterly EFKE have to be thankful that Ilford took steps to ensure their survival.
Personally I've just switched back to Ilford papers after a gap of just short of 30 years, when I switched to Agfa Record Rapid in 1986 Ilford didn't make a warmtone paper, I'd tried Kentona but the grade range had just been cut. When Agfa went I switched to Forte Polywarmtone, I didn't like the then creamier base of Ilford Warmtone FB, the based chage a little later.
A sample bag given out on an Ilford factory tour included a small packet of Ilford Warmtone FB, which I tried and that convinced me that when my stock of Polywarmtone ran low I should seriously consider switching to it. So with my new darroom almost complete, (it's already useable), I placed a large order 10 days ago which is sat here in the darkroom ready for use.
It's worth mentioning my experiences buying B&W films when travelling (and living) abroad, I was a Tmax 100/400 user and found ithem almost impossible to find, I visited the photography/darkroom supplies shops in a number of countries and they always had Ilford films, paper and chemistry, many also had Foma and a few rolls of Fuji. After spending more than 2 days in Santiago, Chile looking for Tmax I bought Ilford film and continue to do so, once again after switching to AP/APX100 in 1986. The supply chain to customers is vital and as far as I've experience hasn't let me down.
So thank you Simon and the team at Harman/Ilford.
Ian
