Dear Mike,
Thanks for your welcome to APUG : Perhaps if I use your initial questions and broaden it out a bit that may help. From the date of the MBO ( 19th February 05 ) and the establishment of ILFORD Photo, HARMAN technology Limited we have been concentrating on putting the business on a firm foundation, I am very pleased to report that it has gone very well to date and we are trading ahead of plan. As we have had gradually more time to get into the market and speak with our distributors, dealers and end users we have been listening to what they want us to do, especially from a product point of view.
Since february our key product focus has been re-introducing our chemical products which were an immediate victim of the receivership of the old company. This work is now mostly complete, all the important liquids are back and more recently the powders ID11 PERCEPTOL and MICROPHEN all of these products are now shipping to distributors ( including the US ) and should be back on the shelves now or very soon. I am pleased to tell you that ID11 2.5 ltr Replenisher and BROMOPHEN 5 ltr will return in late January 2006.
Our two new 1lt paper developers ILFORD HARMAN WARMTONE and ILFORD HARMAN COOLTONE will appear on the shelves at the same time, January 2006, as will an improved ILFORD WASHAID. So thats stage one, we also had to re-introduce our single use HP5+ camera, our processors and dryers and get all the spares sorted.
Stage 2 is all the things our customers have talked to us about ( so far ) we want to do lots of things, they must be commercially viable, and we must have the resources available to deliver quality products on time, so they will have to be prioritised. DELTA 25 is one of these products, it is clear a demand does exist for a slow film, but the R&D resource for a new film product, as I am sure you appreciate is significant, so its in the process and being talked about but too early to say its a project, or what priority it will have. I notice you mention toners, they are also being discussed and a feasability project has been started, but no priority or launch date has been set as yet.
Postcards : I have seen lots of mails about products, but not many about postcards ( PORTFOLIO ) I will talk to our distributors and look at the previous sales levels and review the product, definately no promises on this one.
220 :We have certainly had mails about 220, I also saw ( on APUG ) that our
220 finishing machine was obsolete, its true, but only half the story, sales by volume compared to 120 are very low, but they are to a key and vocal user group, we have looked at the options around re-introduction, but it would not be viable to buy a new converting machine, we have looked at finishing it elsewhere, and we have not given up that as a possibility, but a big issue for us is quality control, so I will keep you informed of any progress.
We want to offer choice, we have seen many much loved products from other manufacturers go, we think thats sad for our industry and the monochrome fraternity, we think especially of our friends in AGFA Photo at this time, whose mono products are admired by end users ( and ILFORD Photo ) our passion is monochrome and where we can, you will see new products to continue to offer choice to the creative photographer and printer : Hope I did not go on too long :
Kind Regards Simon
Also, what's the news on Delta 25 
