Had Agfa initially decided the UK market was too dominated by ILFORD and Kodak to compete?
In the mid 1970s there was a bit of a shake up in the UK, Ilford were consolidating, aside from their factory in Ilford and Basildon they also had a number of other factories as a result of mergers in the 1920s & 30s. They sold their Graphics and Medical side to Agfa Gevaert, essentially that meant the customer base and sales side, this was around 1975/6.
Agfa Gevaert used to advertise regularly in the BJP Annuals, the last advert I can find was 1971. I'm not sure when Agfa stopped importing B&W films and papers, etc I think probably around the same time as they bought the Graphic & medical side from Ilford. I'm not sure when Peter Goldfield set up Goldfinger but his first Craftbook was 1978.
There was a demand for different papers, Art Photography HND (later Degree) courses, like Derby and Trent, were on a roll in the mid to late 1970s here in the UK, and Peter was supplying Record Rapid papers etc. Ilford & Kodak papers were a bit bland, Ilfospeed had almost wiped out FB sales, Ilford realised a premium FB papers was needed and introduced Galerie in 1980
When Agfa began re-importing B&W films and papers again in 1984 they marketed them aggressively, along with their colour materials, with superb advertising, using images by Bob Carlos Clarke, many were in his book Dark Summer. This was backed up with some of the best datasheets and booklets of the manufacturers at that time.
Ian