pentaxuser - when the cost of nearly everything goes up for any number of reasons, including the dramatic fuel and energy crunch in Europe caused by the present war, it's incumbent on manufacturers to spread out their own price increases as broadly as possible to make up the difference, or else risk going out of business. And the vast majority of chemical ingredients and plastics are themselves directly dependent upon the petrochemical industry, and its own costs.
For example, I was just down on the shoreline shooting my 6x9 this afternoon only a couple of miles away from the giant
Chevron oil refinery. Very little of what they produce goes into auto gasoline. They do output a lot of jet fuel. But the largest category is precursors to plastics and industrial chemicals. The necessary crude oil and natural gas comes in on giant barges. But since so much of that is now being diverted to sustain NATO countries and Ukraine, even here there is a distinct price increase on everything petrochemical derived.
The pandemic was strain enough. Ilford might choose spare certain marquis products from some of the increase, but it has to come from somewhere. Every little bit counts, and Ilford's own customers are less likely to scream at significant price increases to minor developer categories than to some favorite film or printing paper. But it's evident that most everything has gotten a lot more expensive in recently, and even hard to get in many instances.