Statement from Harman Technology regarding recent sale to Pemberstone Ventures Ltd.

[AgX]

I'm reminded of the joke about the Fuji executive who, when asked if they would continue producing FP100C, replied, "We make film?"

The story as told by an Apug fellow was about a Fuji representative, not an executive.

Of course one may wonder what would be worse.

 

[Ricardo Miranda]

It seems some of you haven't seen the latest adverts from Ilford.
They are very nice.

https://www.instagram.com/p/8LQLeBQ9As/?taken-by=filmsnotdead

 

[Chris Livsey]

It seems some of you haven't seen the latest adverts from Ilford.
They are very nice.

https://www.instagram.com/p/8LQLeBQ9As/?taken-by=filmsnotdead

No I hadn't, thanks for the link.

 

[AgX]

I was unaware of them too.

complete set:
http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/2015105114182937.pdf

 

[swittmann]

Thanks for those links - these ads look amazing!

 

[John Bragg]

It seems some of you haven't seen the latest adverts from Ilford.
They are very nice.

https://www.instagram.com/p/8LQLeBQ9As/?taken-by=filmsnotdead

Many thanks. These are great ads and seem timeless, like the old fashioned enamelled metal signs. I may print and frame them for my own enjoyment !

 

[pbromaghin]

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PEMBERSTONE VENTURES SNAPS UP £19.4M PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS
17th Sep 2015 North West
Pemberstone Ventures snaps up £19.4m photography business

Investment firm Pemberstone Ventures has purchased a 200-strong photographic product manufacturer based in Cheshire.

Harman Technology, which is headquartered in Mobberley, makes the Ilford brand of black and white camera film and turned over £19.4m last year, with sales driven by a resurgence in analogue photography.

The business was founded in its current form in 2005 when the former directors of Ilford Imaging bought the company out of administration.

Harman is owned by its management team and will continue to be run by managing director Peter Elton and finance director Andy Taylor following the Pemberstone acquisition.

Pemberstone's chief executive Mark Anslow and chairman Andrew Baker will also join the board.

Anslow said: "We have been tracking the performance of Harman for some time and are very positive about the potential we see. We've made this purchase with the intention of supporting Harman to achieve significant growth over the coming years.

"We are very excited by the potential of the analogue photography movement, and believe that Harman is uniquely placed to drive the resurgent film market into the future."

Elton added: "Under the stewardship of Pemberstone, we will be in a position to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the resurgence in analogue photography and to grow our business."

Now will everybody just settle down?

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

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PEMBERSTONE VENTURES SNAPS UP £19.4M PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS
17th Sep 2015 North West
Pemberstone Ventures snaps up £19.4m photography business

Investment firm Pemberstone Ventures has purchased a 200-strong photographic product manufacturer based in Cheshire.

Harman Technology, which is headquartered in Mobberley, makes the Ilford brand of black and white camera film and turned over £19.4m last year, with sales driven by a resurgence in analogue photography.

The business was founded in its current form in 2005 when the former directors of Ilford Imaging bought the company out of administration.

Harman is owned by its management team and will continue to be run by managing director Peter Elton and finance director Andy Taylor following the Pemberstone acquisition.

Pemberstone's chief executive Mark Anslow and chairman Andrew Baker will also join the board.

Anslow said: "We have been tracking the performance of Harman for some time and are very positive about the potential we see. We've made this purchase with the intention of supporting Harman to achieve significant growth over the coming years.

"We are very excited by the potential of the analogue photography movement, and believe that Harman is uniquely placed to drive the resurgent film market into the future."

Elton added: "Under the stewardship of Pemberstone, we will be in a position to capitalise on the opportunities presented by the resurgence in analogue photography and to grow our business."

Now will everybody just settle down?

That was all posted back when this thread started....

 

[AgX]

Now will everybody just settle down?

Well, such statements to me are less telling than a investor's history.


In any case do forget what happened to Ilford Imaging.

 

[pbromaghin]

That was all posted back when this thread started....

I know. I felt it need re-stating.

 

[pbromaghin]

Well, such statements to me are less telling than a investor's history.


In any case do forget what happened to Ilford Imaging.

And what do we know about Pemberstone that should bother us? I'm not being a smartass. This is a serious question because I have not found anything to indicate that there is any threat to continued film production.

 

[AgX]

No, I have no hint at all that should make one anxious. And we learned about the other enterprises they investigated in. And I tried to say that just that tells us more than statements of intention. Statements of the kind we heard often.

 

[pbromaghin]

I also am amazed at RAMS's argument that building homes at that location is "condemning" the buyers to a life of misery due to jet noise. As if anybody would be forced against their will to buy those houses. I took a little look at home price history in the immediate area since the Manchester airport runway expansion. Here are the prices paid for the 8 properties within 1/8 mile of the Harman site that have sold more than once.

Residence adjoining Harman property:
£258,000 25 Sep 2015
£200,000 28 Nov 2008

About 50 meters away:
£170,000 17 Jul 2015
£145,000 10 Oct 2012
£150,000 13 May 2005

About 100 meters:
£250,000 10 Jul 2015
£204,500 16 Sep 2008
£125,000 13 Dec 2002
£92,500 19 May 2000

£255,000 24 Aug 2015
£150,000 22 Nov 2012

About 200 meters:
£247,500 25 Aug 2015 (Wow!)
£125,000 02 May 2014

£225,000 28 Aug 2015
£96,000 29 Apr 2002

£388,000 24 Aug 2015
£247,000 19 Aug 2004
£129,950 31 Mar 2000

£375,000 17 Jul 2015
£315,000 17 Feb 2012
£215,000 12 Jan 2003


Not only were these poor people forced to live under the noisy flightpath, they had to pay an ever increasing price to do so. Thank God RAMS is saving a thousand people from such a fate.

 

[pbromaghin]

No, I have no hint at all that should make one anxious. And we learned about the other enterprises they investigated in. And I tried to say that just that tells us more than statements of intention. Statements of the kind we heard often.

Do you mean invested or investigated?

The information I have seen about the companies Pemberstone already own, actually encourages me. Do you have other info or am I completely misunderstanding your original post?

 

[Steve Smith]

And what do we know about Pemberstone that should bother us? I'm not being a smartass. This is a serious question because I have not found anything to indicate that there is any threat to continued film production.

Same here. I can't see any reason for buying the company other than to have it continue producing film.


Steve.

 

[ChristopherCoy]

Peter Elton, Managing Director of HARMAN concurs.“Film has become an interesting medium for young photographers to work with again.We are seeing this very clearly. Our new owners will assist us to connect more effectively to this younger generation in the future, and we will prioritise this as our main goal over the next five years.”

Forgive my tardiness to the conversation, especially if this has been covered, but - if HARMAN realizes the potential for analog photography, why sell now? Especially if the company is on the verge of significantly rising profits?

Was this strictly a financial decision? Or will the new owners be able to pump in resources to increase the product line?

 

[Chris Livsey]

Forgive my tardiness to the conversation, especially if this has been covered, but - if HARMAN realizes the potential for analog photography, why sell now? Especially if the company is on the verge of significantly rising profits?

Was this strictly a financial decision? Or will the new owners be able to pump in resources to increase the product line?

The owners, who were the management buy out team, had invested in the business both financially and in time and are now shall we politely say of mature years, given the opportunity to exit on a rising market and those who chose to could remain in managerial/advisory positions what would you have done?

 

[ChristopherCoy]

The owners, who were the management buy out team, had invested in the business both financially and in time and are now shall we politely say of mature years, given the opportunity to exit on a rising market and those who chose to could remain in managerial/advisory positions what would you have done?

In other words it doesn't have anything to do with anything other than owners who were ready to retire?

 

[Chris Livsey]

In other words it doesn't have anything to do with anything other than owners who were ready to retire?

That is my reading of the situation, I could of course be wrong but nothing in this long thread, which shows the passion the forum has for film and its long term survival, contradicts that conclusion.
I don't think for one moment that the owners sold because they couldn't see a future short or long term for manufacture of film and coating paper and sold out to gullible investors and that, or a variation on it, is the alternative explanation.
Sometimes, in fact mostly, the simple and direct explanation is the one nearest the truth.

Only today I received a free shipping for Christmas e-mail from Harman, the business continues.

 

[railwayman3]

In other words it doesn't have anything to do with anything other than owners who were ready to retire?

Agreed, nothing more, nothing less, and all the available information and logic supports that.

And perhaps we should be grateful that the owners didn't retire by simply closing down the factory, surrendering the lease, selling the plant for scrap, and walking away. I've seen that happen in the past with more than one smaller business.

 

[RattyMouse]

Agreed, nothing more, nothing less, and all the available information and logic supports that.

And perhaps we should be grateful that the owners didn't retire by simply closing down the factory, surrendering the lease, selling the plant for scrap, and walking away. I've seen that happen in the past with more than one smaller business.

To my knowledge, Ilford still has not resolved their property issue. Is this not an ongoing concern? Their attempt to update their facilities was rejected by the local citizens and their lease is in it's near final stages. What next for Ilford?

 

[railwayman3]

To my knowledge, Ilford still has not resolved their property issue. Is this not an ongoing concern? Their attempt to update their facilities was rejected by the local citizens and their lease is in it's near final stages. What next for Ilford?

I agree, it is inevitably a cause for concern. However, I don't think that Pemberstone woould have paid money for a company which had no future beyond the final finishing date of the lease. That problem would presumably have still been there if there had not been a sale; maybe there are more plans which are not public knowledge yet. IDK.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

To my knowledge, Ilford still has not resolved their property issue. Is this not an ongoing concern? Their attempt to update their facilities was rejected by the local citizens and their lease is in it's near final stages...

HARMAN technology Ltd., manufacturer of Ilford-branded film, paper and (via outsourcing) photo chemicals, is a tenant at its Mobberley site. HARMAN has no "property issue." Its site lease has ten years remaining. While it has undoubtedly cooperated with its landlord, the actual entity attempting to obtain approval of a site redevelopment proposal, HARMAN operations continue as usual during the application and appeal process. Even if a higher level government agency decision some time next year -- after planned public hearings -- is to deny the landlord's appeal, there's a decade of normal manufacturing remaining before any potential issue could come up. Or, at that time the site lease might just be renewed unchanged.

Note that the only impact on HARMAN from operating in its current oversize buildings is higher than necessary utility costs. If the redevelopment plan is approved on appeal, HARMAN's landlord will be covering HARMAN's disruption costs. If it's not approved, things stay status quo (that is, profitable, despite utility costs) until 2025. Unless, of course, we fear the unknown/misunderstood and stop buying Ilford products.

...What next for Ilford?

The same things it's been doing for the last ten years, i.e. the first half of its 20 year site lease.

 

[paul_c5x4]

To my knowledge, Ilford still has not resolved their property issue. Is this not an ongoing concern? Their attempt to update their facilities was rejected by the local citizens and their lease is in it's near final stages. What next for Ilford?

A planning application was made to redevelop the site and build a large quantity of housing. Providing new facilities for the manufacturing operation was only a small part of the proposal. The local residents were opposed to the scale of the housing and the impact it would have on the local amenities along with the increase in traffic. There was not (as far as I'm aware) any significant objection to the manufacturing facilities being redeveloped.

 

[pentaxuser]

A planning application was made to redevelop the site and build a large quantity of housing.

Quite so and frankly the state of the imbalance between demand for housing ( massive) and supply in the U.K.(poor) cannot be allowed to continue if any government in the future wants to be re-elected.

I'd say this strongly favours eventual housing development at Mobberley. I don't want to appear to be trying to belittle our friends' in the U.S.impression of how important housing is in the U.K. or how densely populated we are in certain areas( the N.W. around greater Manchester ie. Mobberley) being a good example but frankly most people outside of the U.K. and especially those from the relatively wide open spaces of the U.S. can have little concept of the size of our housing supply and demand imbalance and the need for very immediate action.


pentaxuser