Steve, I can only respond to what is happening here in US. To some degree, it is a case of a product doing itself in. Two years ago, when the old Ilford went into receivership, it took a long time to find a buyer for the Swiss company that makes it. During the transition, the plant shut down cutting off the flow of supplies. During this period, many of the remaining labs in the US that were running it on light-jet style tecnology (Lambda or Chromira) changed their machines to Fuji Crystal Archive. There are very few left that print either optically or by digi exposure. Early last year, the Ilford North American distributor went bankrupt. While our friends in UK found a distributor very quickly and kept the B&W supply lines flowing, the Swiss company took nearly a year to sign a distributor and once again the supply lines dried up. Now most of the remaining dealers no longer stock the product but sell on special order only.
Every time the sales volume lowers, they have to raise prices to cover the plant overhead. Every time the price goes up, the volume goes down. Sounds like a vicious spiral. I don't mean to sound all gloom and doom here, but just facing reality. I like the results and will continue to use it as long as available.
From a business perspective, as a custom lab, you have to be able to get enough volume to justify offering it. Optically printing can be done with the small 5 litre kits, but chemistry costs more this way than replenished lines. Digi exposure requires enough volume to justify setting up the machine. Only you can decide if you can make any money doing it, but I would advise against any significant capital expenditure for it unless the equipment can be effectively used in other processes.
Bob
