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Ilford shooting itself in the foot

Nostradamus was "Michel de Nostradame", a French name of course, but "usually Latinised to Nostradamus". So you might just be correct with Nostradami. ( I don't get out much! )

(How OT is that.....I'd better shut up before I get my wrist slapped!
 



Anon Ymous said:
So, it has to be the Dutch distributor's markup, because the same product is priced 83,25€ in Germany, which is 69,96€ if you exclude VAT. Still expensive compared to the US price, but a bit more reasonable.
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RobertV said:
Via Belgium and de Beukelaer is distributor and partial owner for BeNeLux AND Germany and they have some part for France too. So they can just ask what they want for this big sales area.
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That last thing is very sad to hear...

The price difference of 2x is just ridiculous. How come that exactly the same product, shipped across an entire ocean to the US, is just half the price there than here in the Netherlands, at a mere few hours transport from its source in the UK?

I can think of only four reasons for this excessive difference:

1) - Someone, or more likely more than one, down the distribution chain is making a huge, some 40-50 Euro profit on the product. It requires only one step in the distribution chain using a mark-up of 100%, or two steps using a mark-up of 40%, to double the end price for the consumer.

2) - Someone is making hugely excessive costs for transport and storage to the Netherlands / Europe, amounting to some 40-50 Euro on a 10 sheet package of paper... Considering shipping to the US, a country more than 10x further from the UK than the Netherlands, doesn't significantly affect pricing compared to the UK itself, this scenario seems highly unlikely and ridiculous, not even taking into account that sending the same package through standard post, probably would cost a fraction of that cost...

3) - Ilford itself is charging double the amount of the European distributors versus the ones in the US. Seems again highly unlikely, why would they be so stupid to raise costs for their European clients by that amount, loosing valuable sales?

4) - US shops have huge amounts of old Ilford stock from years back when prices were still lower, that they can still sell for the low prices of the day, instead of charging "current" excessive prices. This scenario seems just as ridiculous again, not even taking into account pricing in the UK that seems more similar to the US than to the rest of Europe.

If the Beukelaer is really the sole Ilford distributor for the Benelux / Germany area, and they are responsible for these excessive prices, than I think it is about time Ilford took action and found another, more dedicated distributor willing to do the job for a reasonable price, as seems perfectly possible considering the situation in the US...


You're one lucky guy having a 100+ stock of film. I can assure you though, with the current status of my bank account, I have no trouble sympathizing with the less well off, especially not when being surcharged 100% on a product that is sold elsewhere in a similar country for half the price. We're not all in a position to spent maybe half of our salaries on photography because our partners fill up the gap or so... I certainly ain't!

Marco
 

Right on all counts.
 
2F/2F said:
Dude. It's Nostradami.
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Thank you for pointing out to the Latin Illiterates the the masculine plural of -us is -i.

This does not explain why when I order a martini, that I only get one! Please advise!

Steve
 
Martin was French, not Latino. They do things funny there. Make it easy on yourself and order a Gibson. Better yet, bring a flask.
 
I will stick to Martini's, but I will drink to that with you.
 

Marco, when I worked ( currently I'm unemployed, only part-time job ), my netto sallary was 600 euros, as M.Eng. I believe that is probably three times lower then average for that title in Netherlands. And films in general are here very expensive and I didn't spent half of my sallary on them.

Sirius Glass said:
Thank you for pointing out to the Latin Illiterates the the masculine plural of -us is -i.

This does not explain why when I order a martini, that I only get one! Please advise!

Steve
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Well, this is English speaking forum, and I used English transliteration. I learned Latin for two years in school, so don't worry about my knowledge on that matter.
 
And films in general are here very expensive
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Yes, you see that in Croatia (Efke) and in the Czech Republic (Foma) too. Best prices you will find in the USA, then Germany, UK etc. Export seems to be more interesting then the own local market.
 
Paul VanAudenhove said:
That was a gag in Wayne & Schuster's version of Julius Caesar.
'I'll have a martinus.'
'You mean a martini.'
'If I want two, I'll order them.'
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Yes, I have a recording of that on an old Analog 33 1/3 rpm record along with about 1 hour of their other routines.

PE
 
RobertV said:
Yes, you see that in Croatia (Efke) and in the Czech Republic (Foma) too. Best prices you will find in the USA, then Germany, UK etc. Export seems to be more interesting then the own local market.
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Exactly. Here you can buy Efke in store ( which is expensive ) or in factory directly ( which is little cheaper ), but in factory you must buy at least 10 rolls, which is absolutely understanding, because they have no interest in selling smaller quantities. Also, Efke is focused on export, since probably 98% of their sales is export. Croatia is very small market for analog photography.
 
Croatia is very small market for analog photography
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Well, Holland is a small analog market too. Apart from the film production and their papers they do a lot of packing for other companies (e.g. Rollei) to make the business more profitable. And for questions you can always expect a direct answer from the factory too. So far a good business partner in photography.
 
Paul VanAudenhove said:
That was a gag in Wayne & Schuster's version of Julius Caesar.
'I'll have a martinus.'
'You mean a martini.'
'If I want two, I'll order them.'
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Thank you for citing the source.
 

Talking about "good business partners" and "good business sense"... here's another interesting thought. With that current exorbitant price difference between the Netherlands and US for Ilford products, shops in the Netherlands are probably better of buying all of their stock in bulk from US shops like B&H and Freestyle, and import that by having it send over an entire ocean for the second time, than they are buying it from the Benelux distributor the Beukelaer in Belgium on the other side of the border...

*** How can this situation last????? :confused: ***

Marco
 
and import that by having it send over an entire ocean for the second time
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.... and with the risk of having the whole crap having X-rayed, which means a total loss and angry customers because you can only check this later and can not be having any insurance for this.

I made a good business proposal in 2005 with Ilford but they were hand tight on de Beukelaer.
 
RobertV said:
I made a good business proposal in 2005 with Ilford but they were hand tight on de Beukelaer.
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So why is it that Kentmere paper, now from the same Harman factories, is still distributed through another and obviously more reasonable distributor, if I understood my regular shop owner well?

I say to Ilford: send everything through that channel if the Beukelaer messes up the market with its exorbitant pricing...
 
Mr. de Caluwe had very good contacts with Kentmere before they merged with Harman/Ilford. We even made a common trip to the Czech Republic to introduce Kentmere and Amaloco overthere.
At the end he's still allowed to sell this brand.

Strict contracts between the Belgium distributor and Harman will prevent any interaction from open competitors.
 
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