Positive News from Tetenal

Henning Serger · Sep 16, 2020

Hello,
slowly but steadily and step-by-step Tetenal is making progress with their new "photo chemistry only" business strategy after their insolvency about almost two years ago.
After first new products now their new international consumer online store is up and running:
https://tetenal.com/en/consumer-shop/

Best regards,
Henning

Photography is not about megapixels, dynamic range, frames per second or specification sheets.
It is all about light, composition, memories, stories, creativity and the enjoyment of making pictures.

JWMster · Sep 16, 2020

VERY encouraging. Thanks!

JensH · Sep 16, 2020

Henning Serger said:
Hello,
slowly but steadily and step-by-step Tetenal is making progress with their new "photo chemistry only" business strategy after their insolvency about almost two years ago.
After first new products now their new international consumer online store is up and running:
https://tetenal.com/en/consumer-shop/

Best regards,
Henning

Moin Henning!

Ah, fine the Goldtoner and Protectan are still offered, but I miss Centrabrom...

Cheers and thank You
Jens

pentaxuser · Sep 16, 2020

If I have understood the description correctly the Magic Kit for beginners does 1 roll of 35m or 120 for about 13 euros but the 1.2 L kit that does the same job does 12-16 films and costs about two and a half times as much. So that is 11 to 15 more films for about two and a half times as much money

I must have something wrong here surely? Can someone else read what Tetenal says and tell me what I have misunderstood. It is difficult to believe that the kit for one film is 13 euros so 10 -14 more films which is the capacity of the kit that does 12-15 films id done with the beginner's magic kit would cost about 130 euros and yet that is what it seems to state

In case it isn't clear I am referring to the C41 kits

Thanks

pentaxuser

pentaxuser · Sep 16, 2020

There may be good reasons why the prices are what they are but I fear that they are so far out of line with Ilford, for instance, that sales are likely to be adversely affected. 5L of Eukobrom is about £69 whereas Ilford MG developer is less than £27 so even allowing for the fact the Eukobrom price includes delivery the difference in price is massive

pentaxuser

mshchem · Sep 16, 2020

Looks great. I have great results with the Tetenal products I've used. I love the color magic box idea. Perfect for a beginner or a school project. Tetenal E6 chemistry works great. Currently I'm using Fuji E6, but I bought a large quantity of the bulk materials. This is not practical for most people. Looks like a excellent selection of black and white products. Very pleased to see the gold toner. I mix the Kodak gold Blue Toner formula, no substitute for gold for certain tones.

Henning Serger · Sep 17, 2020

pentaxuser said:
I must have something wrong here surely?

In real life it is possible to develop up to three films with the Magic Kit. At least that are saying the people who have tested the max. capacity of it (I haven't as this product is of course not intended for me, as I am a high volume film user, but this product is for beginners who want to learn the process with a very low initial investment).

Best regards,
Henning

Photography is not about megapixels, dynamic range, frames per second or specification sheets.
It is all about light, composition, memories, stories, creativity and the enjoyment of making pictures.

pentaxuser · Sep 17, 2020

Thanks Henning for the information. So while Tetenal only claim one film can be done, user experience is that it is three. Taking into account that the delivery charge is included( and here I presume that this means delivery to the U.K. and the U.S. or is it Europe only?) then the price falls by the amount of the delivery charge so let's say 5 euros so the kit is 8 euros for 3 films which is say 2.60 euros per film or in GBP about £2.30 per film While this is expensive on a per film basis I suspect that any other maker offering a one film kit would probably charge as much

I wonder if there is a time limit once you have opened the kit so that you have to process the other two films within a period. What might that period be?

Why not ask Tetenal, I hear you say but the problem is that it may not be prepared to say if it only claims a capacity of one film

On the b&w paper developer example there would appear no way that Tetenal will ever come close to matching Ilford so I do still fear for sales in that product

pentaxuser

Tom Kershaw · Sep 17, 2020

pentaxuser said:
On the b&w paper developer example there would appear no way that Tetenal will ever come close to matching Ilford so I do still fear for sales in that product

Tetenal black & white products can be purchased at lower prices from dealers.

halfaman · Sep 17, 2020

Prices of color chemistry are absolutely crazy. 86€ for 5 liters of RA-4... when their minilab chemistry is almost half of that.

All the best for Tetenal but I can't follow them with their amateur products.

BradS · Sep 17, 2020

Nice, modern, shiny website. I did not find any data sheets for the chemistry products.
I'll be looking for the return of Tetenal products to the shelves of local suppliers.

Tom Kershaw · Sep 17, 2020

BradS said:
Nice, modern, shiny website. I did not find any data sheets for the chemistry products.
I'll be looking for the return of Tetenal products to the shelves of local suppliers.

Finding Tetenal data sheets always seems to be difficult or impossible. I've not found PDFs for the E-6 product range for example aside from kits.

BradS · Sep 17, 2020

Tom Kershaw said:
Finding Tetenal data sheets always seems to be difficult or impossible. I've not found PDFs for the E-6 product range for example aside from kits.

Well, that's remarkable. I wonder how they expect folks to use their products.

pentaxuser · Sep 17, 2020

Tom Kershaw said:
Tetenal black & white products can be purchased at lower prices from dealers.

Thanks Tom I just had a quick look at one U.K. dealer and the same 5L of Eukobrom on sale in the Tetenal shop at nearly £72 at today's exchange rate can be bought for just over £36

"purchased at lower prices" has to be the all time winner of the British understatement. Even sympathetic users who wish Tetenal well must wonder how what is going on with Tetenal's pricing policy. There is no way the U.K. retailer is selling at a loss so surely the profit being made by Tetenal from its own shop can only be called extortionate

This kind of gulf in prices can only do Tetenal harm as for me at least this says that Tetenal are taking me for a mug if I am stupid enough to go their shop

Very sad

pentaxuser

Tom Kershaw · Sep 17, 2020

pentaxuser said:
Even sympathetic users who wish Tetenal well must wonder how what is going on with Tetenal's pricing policy.

Tetenal UK has some interesting prices, some very reasonable and others rather high.

Henning Serger · Sep 18, 2020

pentaxuser said:
I wonder if there is a time limit once you have opened the kit so that you have to process the other two films within a period. What might that period be?

Try it, test it, and then you know.
That's always the best to do if someone is really interested in a specific product.

Best regards,
Henning

Henning Serger · Sep 18, 2020

Tom Kershaw said:
Tetenal black & white products can be purchased at lower prices from dealers.

Exactly, because that is a major and much more important part of their business - distributing by the established specialist stores.
Some members here are much overestimating the importance of this new online shop.
Let's just have a look at the major (core) business areas of Tetenal:
- producing photo chemistry as OEM manufacturer for several other big brands (including Kodak Alaris and Ilford for example)
- producing photo chemistry in bigger volumes (bulk) for professional labs
- producing photo chemistry under their own Tetenal brand, and distributing it by the countless big online distributors (like Freestyle, Fotoimpex, AG-Photographic, ars-imago, foto-r3, Nordfoto etc.) and photo shops
- producing raw chemicals and selling it also to other photo chemistry manufacturers.
That is the business Tetenal is really living from.
This new online shop is just a very small addition to their portfolio. An additional option for some customers. Mainly addressing photographers in a situation when their normally used shop is out of stock with certain Tetenal products.
That the prices are higher compared to Fotoimpex + Co is also not surprising: Tetenal is well known for having a fair and sustainable relationship with their customers in this field. They don't want to start a price war and undercut their important customers, which sell much more of their stuff than Tetenal could ever do with their own shop.

Therefore: Keep calm, carry on. No one is forced to buy Tetenal products in their shop. Those who want to continue to use Tetenal products can just buy them as usual at reasonable prices at the established film and photo chemistry distributors like FS, Fotoimpex + Co.
Nothing has changed at all in this regard. There is only an additional option available now as well.

Best regards,
Henning

BradS · Sep 18, 2020

Henning Serger said:
Try it, test it, and then you know.
That's always the best to do if someone is really interested in a specific product.

Best regards,
Henning

Nice attitude. Feels a lot like the mfgr raising the middle finger to potential customers and markets.

Sorry. No thanks. I'll continue to buy from companies that at least pretend to have some intellectual honesty.

Tom Kershaw · Sep 18, 2020

Even within the UK market there is significant price variation. For example, I don't think ILFORD compete directly on price with dealers for ILFORD / Kentmere / Harman products. Sometimes buying direct from ilfordphoto.com makes sense but most of the time an order from a dealer is the better option; it really depends on what is needed. I'm a multi-brand user of film , paper, and dakroom products, but I suspect someone who is more ILFORD-centric would find the direct sales option very convenient, at least for the basics.

MattKing · Sep 18, 2020

Tetenal will lose a huge amount of their business if they compete on price with their own dealers.
Right now, they have an army of people and organizations out there making direct contact with potential end users, and handling all the myriad details and expenses related to marketing Tetenal products.
The store is probably there to counteract the increasingly common misapprehension that for a business to be real it has to have a web store .

Mick Fagan · Sep 18, 2020

My last business was as a manufacturer/wholesaler in a field completely outside of photography; we had a very good website established around 1990/1. That website had very high retail prices simply so that customers could see all of our products then seek cheaper places to purchase them. Those cheaper places were an Australia wide network of resellers. This really worked very well as we advertised the complete product range at what were the top end of retail prices. For a couple of our more unusual products, we had resellers in New Zealand and most of the Pacific Island Nations.

Our dealers (onsellers of our product) were very happy with this arrangement and it worked extremely well for the 21 years we had the business; which we started from scratch in the spare bedroom, garage and darkroom. Essentially we made no retail sales, except for approximately 2 to 3 a month which were mainly very difficult requirements. If a retailer of our products directed their customer to us because of the request being very difficult, we finalised the transaction through that retailer but often delivered the goods direct to the retail customer. Not once did we ever offer a lower price to a direct customer.

Primary manufacturing businesses around the world, in general, operate like this; with their particular slant on how the mechanics are done. As I see things from down here at the bottom of the world, Tetenal are doing pretty much the same thing.

Mick.

cmacd123 · Sep 19, 2020

it is fairly standard practive for a manufacturer to establish a "Sugested retail Price" sometimes called MSRP, or "List Price" which in most cases No one pays. (in the 1950s in some places a dealer was not allowed to undercut the MSRP which resulted in many folks shopping in the next state)

smaller dealers can quote MSRP, and offer a slight discount - ("It is $259.87 in the book, but If I put it on teh order I am placeing tomorow, I can let you have it for $240, if you pay 10% now.")

Many distributors in fact use the MSRP in their dealer catalogues, and then offer a 40% (or more) discount across the board to dealers.

the site we are talking seems to charge list price, but include shipping.

cmacd123 · Sep 19, 2020

pentaxuser said:
All of this may be the case but the price in question was not 10% more but 100%
As I think most will agree, nobody will buy something that costs twice as much from the producer if the same item can be obtained at half the price from a retailer so the real question is: does such a price serve any purpose in Tetenal's attempt to re-establish itself as a company?

a 10 dollar item at 40% off would cost 6 dollars, and so the list price is almost double. the theoretical retail price, BUT they are offering shipping, which many folks find to be a serious problem with chemicals.

a cheep retail price is not cheep if one has to travel a day or three to obtain the item.

I know a few items I was tempted to buy in the past were not mail-able to Canada. so I could not even decide if I should try them. for someone that wants one of the products who can order them and get them shipped, the price may be not the most important factor.

as far as helping, the products would not be discussed in this thread if they did not have the web site, SO I would guess it is helping to advertise their products.

Henning Serger · Sep 20, 2020

BradS said:
Nice attitude. Feels a lot like the mfgr raising the middle finger to potential customers and markets.

No, not at all. And it has nothing to do with the manufacturer.
My reply was a very specific reply to just one specific member here, who is permanently trolling threads by asking questions about products he has absolutely no intend to use at all by himself.
Therefore my suggestion that if he really would be interested in that product, he could find the answer perfectly by trying the specific product. That is at least my experience: No product description or data-sheet can replace the knowledge you get by using and testing a product in real life. Only by that you can see whether it really fits your individual needs.

Best regards,
Henning

Photography is not about megapixels, dynamic range, frames per second or specification sheets.
It is all about light, composition, memories, stories, creativity and the enjoyment of making pictures.

Henning Serger · Sep 20, 2020

cmacd123 said:
a 10 dollar item at 40% off would cost 6 dollars, and so the list price is almost double. the theoretical retail price, BUT they are offering shipping, which many folks find to be a serious problem with chemicals.
a cheep retail price is not cheep if one has to travel a day or three to obtain the item.

I know a few items I was tempted to buy in the past were not mail-able to Canada. so I could not even decide if I should try them. for someone that wants one of the products who can order them and get them shipped, the price may be not the most important factor.

Charles, exactly.
This new online-shop is probably more an additional option for customers in regions with no or not so good distribution infrastructure. And as already explained above, the classic distribution via all their well-established wholesale and retail distribution partners remains unchanged.

Best regards,
Henning

Photography is not about megapixels, dynamic range, frames per second or specification sheets.
It is all about light, composition, memories, stories, creativity and the enjoyment of making pictures.

138S · Sep 20, 2020

halfaman said:
Prices of color chemistry are absolutely crazy. 86€ for 5 liters of RA-4... when their minilab chemistry is almost half of that.

All the best for Tetenal but I can't follow them with their amateur products.

+1

I was buying the 5L E-6 kit for 60€, now only the 2.5L is available for 73€

I'd would suggest Tetenal to make the 5L kit again, including a mini Protectan can in the kit, with proper preservation instructions. It is well stated that the E-6 concentrates can keep well for a year if protected with preserving gass after opened, I've done this many times: mixing what needed and gas-preserving the remaining concentrates. Present prices and the short shelf life of the mixed stock solutions are discouraging.

Another solution could be recommending to mix the Part A and the Part B independently in distilled water when openning the kit, and later mixing the diluted parts just before usage, plus protecting the rest with gas, I've not tried this way but it also should extent shelf life, this would help the commercialization of larger kits that would be more suitable in general, making the whole manufacturer-customer system more effective, and thus promoting the customer base growth in the mid/long term.

All the best for Tetenal, of course.

Positive News from Tetenal

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