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Ilford prices going up Feb. 1 in North America

Rob Skeoch

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Sorry for the sad news but my Ilford rep called this morning to let me know about a price increase on Ilford products on Feb. 1.
I'm sure this just involves the North American dealers who purchase through the Ilford distributor here.
The price will be going up around 7% on Ilford films, papers and chemicals.
Ilford will honour the old prices on orders placed before Feb. 1 IF THEY HAVE IT IN STOCK.

Just thought you might want to know.

-Rob
 
Rob Skeoch said:
I'm sure this just involves the North American dealers who purchase through the Ilford distributor here.
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I imagine it will go up more for those who don't; the 35% decline in the dollar since Geo W. came to power has wrought havoc with many goods priced in hard currency*, though today the dollar was around $1.92 to the £ sterling, rather than being on the far side of $1.95. Ilford (like most companies) tries to 'eat' as much currency devaluation as it can, but the continuing weakness of the dollar is a problem.

*The usual suspects will accuse me of America-bashing, but in fact I am referring principally to the Renminbini Yuan here.

Cheers,

R.
 
Isn't this the second increase in about six months?

They may just drive more folks to third party films and papers if they keep going up.
 
Actually, I was just noticing the the prices that Freestyle has on their Fuji Neopan... I might have to try some. I doubt it will be able to tempt me away from Ilford films, though, even with a 7% increase.
 
Hmm, cost of silver, other raw materials or the currancy spread? I am slowly becoming an Ilford Paper, chemicals and film fan, this could get expensive but at least they are still around. I rather support a firm that is enthusiastic about film photography.

Bill
 
Uncle Bill said:
Hmm, cost of silver, other raw materials or the currancy spread?
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Oil price...

I don't know how optimistic people are in general, but if the U.S. and its allies attack Iran later this year or something, as an example, the oil distribution from that region will shut down, and we'll suffer greatly from getting the goods that we normally do because a lot of them use oil for packaging(plastic) and delivering(fuel).

That won't help stabilize the prices on photo supplies, either. That's for sure.
 
7% doesn't seem too much to me, reminds me of all the people who freak out over 1 cent variations in petrol prices here, in the long run the difference is still just a few cents, no matter how much you buy. If they have to up the price they have to up the price, if Ilford's done anything here it's shown it isn't just an evil money-grabbing corporation from the second moon of Saturn.
 

Invading Iran will only play into the hands of the digi-heads. Reason enough to reconsider.

Somehow, I think the Iranians would be the ones to suffer, but I could be wrong . . .
 
I wish my health insurance premiums would only go up 7% a year. Nobody likes increased prices but if it keeps the materials I love to use in my camera bag and darkroom then I will deal with it....even it I don't like it.

Regards,
John
 
Is there a reason why this simple "price increase thread" is being dragged into the political arena?

Simple fact, my brother works in the medical imaging field and told me at Christmas that Kodak was raising its prices on X-Ray (and presumably other film).

He now works for an end-product producer of equipment (Phillips) but used to work for a vertical producer (Konica-Minolta) and told me that the "others" always wait for Kodak to do the price rise first - and then they follow along!

Cut the political crap here please. I consider "W" and his folks to be beyond disgusting - but I don't come to APUG to hear political chatterboxes!

And, yes, this all started with Roger and his unnecessary gratuitous statement that "W" has been responsible for the trading decline of the dollar.

Did any of you think that it is a deliberate move by the Fed to redress the US trade imbalance by keeping interest rates low and thus pushing the dollar down? It is a risky gamble because it also means that large US Treasury securities holders (e.g. China) will experience a decline in the value of their reserves.

But this is intended - the US Treasury is trying to "push" China and the other large US securities holders to shift some reserve assets to the Euro.

Economically, the real international game is being played out in East Asia - not the Middle East!
 
They raised the prices here in Japan on Ilford products back in November, by about 8 percent or so. So its certainly not limited to North America, while its not the best thing for us, its the price we are going to have to pay to keep using film. And I will happily keep paying as long as I can.

Gary
 
HP5+ was the only film I used and I buy 4-5 boxes of 8x10/4x5 a at time and buy it many times at year as I shoot a lot.

At this rate I will be switching again. I realize goods cost more but this is the second time in a short time span. What is the deal?

nobody likes increased prices but if it keeps the materials I love to use in my camera bag and darkroom then I will deal with it....even it I don't like it.
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There are two ways to look at this. Higher prices means fewer can afford to buy which means your beloved film will be gone as they wont be able to sell enough to support the manufacturing of the product.

The best solution would be for them to lower the price and get everyone using their products therefore cornering the market and removing the competition. Then you would have film around for a long time as they would sell tons.

They are basically pricing themselves out of the market. Typical management that only cares abut stock holders and do not real the danger they are causing for themselves in the long run.

Unless of course they want out of the film business then they are doing the right thing and they should just keep raising prices every 6 months. IN two year they will be out of the film business all together.



FUJI, Efke and Forte. no need to be gouged by Ilford.


 
"Did any of you think that it is a deliberate move by the Fed to redress the US trade imbalance by keeping interest rates low and thus pushing the dollar down? It is a risky gamble because it also means that large US Treasury securities holders (e.g. China) will experience a decline in the value of their reserves.

But this is intended - the US Treasury is trying to "push" China and the other large US securities holders to shift some reserve assets to the Euro."

If this is true then I suppose that we are in for a quite an expansion of inflation. We have relied on China and others to buy our dept. for quite some time. If they are not buying then we, as US taxpayers, will have to actually pay for our own dept. Hold on to your butt holes.

But, I suppose, inflation will make current dept. look cheaper.

Its all politics. Sorry as it is.
Jim
 
I'm sorry about my last two posts that revealed something about the politics. I didn't mean that. Instead, I simply wanted to point out other factors that will probably drive the prices high as well. With all of them combined, we'll be in trouble.

I started another thead about Ilford's Xray fog problem over their shipping their stuff to Japan, and that is, from my point of view, which is a consumer's point view, not going to do any good to the current price increase.

Ironically, many photo-supply consumers in Japan really love Ilford stuff, but there's always not enough being supplied in this country for some reason. But these people still prefer Ilford and other foreign brands for the sake of them being foreign products (in a "greener-grass" sort of way). In other words, it's a very saturated market with a lot of hunger for such good products, but never been so fulfilled enough.

I'm not talking about myself but the people from many places (schools, pros, amateurs, stores, etc). I'm pretty flexible, so whatever is available and good for me, I learn to use it, but these people are not and they want the stuff so badly. So, I just wish Ilford as a company would hear more voices from the actual users in the market and market their products better. If they did, they would probably be able to sell better.
 
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kjsphoto said:
They are basically pricing themselves out of the market. Typical management that only cares abut stock holders and do not real the danger they are causing for themselves in the long run.
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I don't know who all the owners of IlfordPhoto are, but they are as far as I know not a stock corporation.
 
Petzi said:
I don't know who all the owners of IlfordPhoto are, but they are as far as I know not a stock corporation.
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I didn't mean it in a literal sense but the fact that the only thing most corporation care about today is their own pockets. They are really screwing themselves by the constant rate hikes.
 
kjsphoto said:
I didn't mean it in a literal sense but the fact that the only thing most corporation care about today is their own pockets. They are really screwing themselves by the constant rate hikes.
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I agree that their prices are high, in particular for photo paper. But we don't know all the reasons for their strategy.
 
Curious, can anyone recall when the last price increase was? Seems like it might have been early last year (like around this time or earlier). While I don't care for a price increase anymore than anyone else (we all have limited expendable income I would guess) this does not seem out of place to me. And seems like just today, saw a thread here on a price increase on Efke films. Not picking on Efke, just pointing out that as the $ is weak, and other cost go up the cost of things (including film) could go up as well.

Also, the price of Ilford here in the US was much below the market price before Ilford had their problems, perhaps this is actually the next stage in adjusting the price to be more in line with actual production cost and we have just been lucky that they did not try to re-coup this cost right out of re-org. This is just speculation in part, but I have read where Ilford USA film prices were below where they should have been and would think that this is just an adjustment and perhaps a way to keep providing us with a product we said we wanted, in formats that we wanted.

Then again, maybe I'm wrong ...
 
Mike you could be right but with this new increase they are now quite a bit more expensive than Kodak if you compare TMax 400 to HP5+ by looking at prices on freestyle. Even before the increase they were more expensive.

Doesn't make much sense to me as Ilford film is not better. I love HP5 but I can learn to love another.

LIek I said they are jsut pricing themselves out of the market. Look at Efke you can get 50 sheets for around $101 8x10, Kodak 50 sheets $155 now with the increase Ilford HP5 in 8x10 for 50 sheets will be $166. I realize that Efke does not sell 400 speed film but still if you compare FP4 is the same on HP5 at $166, and Efke is almost $60 cheaper. They need to realize that EKFE is a good film and people will make a switch and leave. You think they had problems before the re-structuring, let them keep raising the prices and they will be out of business in the film market.

People only have so much expendable income as you say.

Just my two cents.
 
kjsphoto said:
Mike you could be right but with this new increase they are now quite a bit more expensive than Kodak if you compare TMax 400 to HP5+ by looking at prices on freestyle. Even before the increase they were more expensive.
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Last I checked, customs duties were 5.8% for film. And Kodak could probably compete with Ilford even if Ilford didn't have to pay that.
 
We are actually coming from the same place kevin, I really do understand. I shoot 4x5, 5x7 and 8x10 plus the odd roll of 120. The only Ilford I can afford to shoot is 4x5 and 120 (strange last time I priced Efke 120 vs Ilford they were about the same - go figure). Also, I prefer the 50 sheet box so that I know I can load more than 12 holders (OK, that does not happen that often).

Plus when testing film, it is much easier on the pocket book to test using Efke than Ilford. All that said....I have had the infrequent quality issue with Efke, that I have not had with Ilford. And Efke does not have a 400 speed film that I am aware of...so it is either Kodak or Ilford (I just haven't gone through the process to pick one for the sheet films - like the idea of using one film for all three formats - 4x5,5x7 and 8x10).

Let's hope this will be the last increase from anyone for a while.
 
Since I only shoot 35 and 120 I am not really hurt by this increase - espescially since by chance I did buy a brick of HP5+ last month.

My suggestion to all, and espescially the big format folk, would be to stock up now (provided you have good storage capabilities) at the pre-increase prices.

Of course this helps Ilford dealers clear their shelves of aging inventory and thus helps Ilford book more orders for (higher priced) replenishment. After all, they need we "end users" to complete the pass-through.

So buy now on the past 2006 price increase. Then we can all get back to shooting off the stull until next year at this time and do this "griping" all over again for the 2008 price boost - and consequent "inventory clearance" by buying at the by then "old" 2007 increase!
 
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