Tetenal

[Martin Rickards]

Has anyone heard anything about Tetenal's going into administration/bankruptcy?

 

[AgX]

Yes, they applied at court for insolvency, and have been granted an insolvency procedure under self-management to take care of the business in finding a way out. A external expert on restructuring has been hired.

We should be aware that Tetenal over the last years tried to substitute falling revenues in the photochemical sector by manufacturing chemical compounds for other sectors, plus offering toll-production.

The import point for us is that production on current contracts is continued.

 

[miha]

This came as a surprise to me.

 

[AgX]

Because they depicted the image of having coped with the situation. Now it seems that nevertheless their classic market was that brought them into insolvency.
Ongoing falls of revenue plus a somehow longtime cancelled supply are stated. The latter maybe RA-4 paper for their photo-book production or RA-4 and ink-jet papers for their wholesale business.

 

[Martin Rickards]

The other point is how much of their production was aimed at private labelling? If so, doubt surrounds a lot of other suppliers.Here in Spain, there are virtually no others in the C41/RA4 market. And just as Ektachrome was relaunched, a major supplier of E6 chemistry seems at risk.
Any restructuring will probably result in discontinuing supplies of those products which added little to the sales figures.

 

[blockend]

I hope it won't effect their C41 kits.

 

[Sal Santamaura]

Champion was stiffed in the Kodak bankruptcy, and Tetenal became Kodak's new vendor. I wonder how this will affect Kodak. Will some payments it made to Tetenal for chemicals not yet delivered be lost? Poetic justice?

 

[R.Gould]

This has come as a complete surprise to me, I believe that Tetenal also make a lot of the Ilford chemistry, hope this does not affect them to much, also they make chemistry for Fotospeed and many others, hope it doesn't affect chemical supplies to much, they are one of the biggest suppliers

 

[mshchem]

This is terrible news. Since Tetenal has been making XTOL there's no little brown bits left that won't dissolve. Very concerning.

 

[Lachlan Young]

It sounds to me an awful lot like a situation where a lot of Tetenal's own branded products were not making money, but the stuff they were toll manufacturing was. Ironically, it was probably the higher degree of brand recognition of those toll manufactured products that was the cause of this. The big problem is that the vast majority of the market for film developers (for example) is for XTOL (most industrial/ dip dunk machines) then ID-11/ D-76, then HC-110/ DD-X/ Ilfosol. The rest are probably single digit percentages by comparison - and it's likely similar with paper developers - Dektol/ Multigrade/ PQ Universal, then the others.

On the other hand, Tetenal's colour chemistry seems to have a much higher degree of market penetration.

I suspect that their rather oversized catalogue of offerings will be trimmed down to the core products that matter.

 

[AgX]

Tetenal is a major manufacturer of processing compounds, but there are still others of various size.
However, in the last 10 years in Europe 4 such manufacturers closed down, one recently in an insolvency too.
Amongst those in Europe there are the independant ones Calbe and Bellini.
And then there are of course the big ones as Fuji and Agfa.

In the past one speciality of Tetenal were special supply forms of their compounds. And of course that one just could call them and there was a processing expert on the line.

 

[cmacd123]

This must be causing heartburn at BOTH Ilford and KodakAlaris.

 

[Svenedin]

A bit of a concern. I have used Tetenal Eukobrom paper developer and their Superfix for a long time now. The Eukobrom keeps much better in my slot processor than Ilford Multigrade Dev. Tetenal products are about the same price or slightly cheaper than their Ilford equivalents from my usual supplier.

 

[guangong]

With nothing more than intuition to guide me, I suspect that European chemical industries all falling from China being able to supply such chemicals to European users cheaper, especially those hazardous to manufacture.
Since my friend who operated a lab died I have found certain chemicals hard to come by. As an individual I can no longer buy chemicals I bought when I was 12 yrs old. But I can buy them from China...if I buy the minimum of a ton.

A question. Tetenal used to package developers in small glass vials. I found some in my clutter that I bought from Olden in NYC in 1970s. Would they still be usable?

 

[Martin Rickards]

...

A question. Tetenal used to package developers in small glass vials. I found some in my clutter that I bought from Olden in NYC in 1970s. Would they still be usable?

If it's Neofin, it's probably OK.

 

[blockend]

If it's Neofin, it's probably OK.

I was a regular Neofin user way back - along with Agfa Record Rapid and Portriga - but can remember nothing about the developer!

edit: Google "One-shot developer for b/w negatives with the highest resolution and exceptional sharpness. The film's speed is fully exploited. Ideal for slow/ medium speed films."
Used with Agfapan 25.

 

[Sirius Glass]

This must be causing heartburn at BOTH Ilford and KodakAlaris.

It causes me to have heartburn.

 

[chip j]

Those glass vials were real CLASS!! I used Neofin Blue w/Panatomic X and would love to do so again.

 

[mooseontheloose]

I just heard about this. I have to say that I've been a fan of Tetenal products in the past, but they are impossible to buy here in Japan, and even if I was willing to pay the shipping, the products I really want can't be shipped at all.

 

[AgX]

In hindsight Tetenal products over here in the 70s had the major product range on the shelf, if I remember right. Then there was a bit of Agfa and Ilford. Later they even had a kind of magazine laying at the the photo store where they described the use of some products and news out of their range. A form of marketing unique in the photographic field in those years.

 

[Henning Serger]

Has anyone heard anything about Tetenal's going into administration/bankruptcy?

Yes, I've got the official announcement at the release date.
Don't worry! It is not a bankruptcy.
Because that is not an insolvency due to tradtional German insolvency law, but a "Insolvenzplanverfahren in Eigenverwaltung", a relatively new and different process (introduced in 2012) in German law. It has some similarities to "Chapter 11" in the US, but it isn't identical either. The main target is to keep the production running and to maintain the company. It will support a restructuring process.
Tetenal's problems have been at least partly caused by one of their suppliers, who failed to deliver color paper to them for five months. And color paper is an important business for them (they are Kodak Alaris color paper distributor....). So that was not Tetenal's fault.
Facts so far:
- Tetenal is operating normally
- production is running as always
- no discontinuation of products
- even new planned products will be released as planned (like new, additional 1L E6 kit coming in early 2019).

I have talked to the responsible Tetenal managers at Photokina. They were quite relaxed. Demand for BW chemistry has been very stable for years at Tetenal. The demand for their ColorTec C41 and E6 kits is increasing. That is the reason why they already have re-introduced the 1L C41 kit in addition to the 2.5L kit. And the 1L E6 kit will follow in February.
They even asked me about my assessment concerning another new potential product. You would not do that if you want to "pull the plug".
I am very optimistic that Tetenal will be a stronger company after this process.
And if you like Tetenal products, just continue to use them. That is the best to support them now.
The market news at Photokina have been very good and encouraging. The film rival is gaining strength. I intend to publish a detailed report about that topic here on photrio. But please be a bit patient, because I have so much work to do. It will take some time.

Best regards,
Henning

 

[Svenedin]

Yes, I've got the official announcement at the release date.
Don't worry! It is not a bankruptcy.
Because that is not an insolvency due to tradtional German insolvency law, but a "Insolvenzplanverfahren in Eigenverwaltung", a relatively new and different process (introduced in 2012) in German law. It has some similarities to "Chapter 11" in the US, but it isn't identical either. The main target is to keep the production running and to maintain the company. It will support a restructuring process.
Tetenal's problems have been at least partly caused by one of their suppliers, who failed to deliver color paper to them for five months. And color paper is an important business for them (they are Kodak Alaris color paper distributor....). So that was not Tetenal's fault.
Facts so far:
- Tetenal is operating normally
- production is running as always
- no discontinuation of products
- even new planned products will be released as planned (like new, additional 1L E6 kit coming in early 2019).

I have talked to the responsible Tetenal managers at Photokina. They were quite relaxed. Demand for BW chemistry has been very stable for years at Tetenal. The demand for their ColorTec C41 and E6 kits is increasing. That is the reason why they already have re-introduced the 1L C41 kit in addition to the 2.5L kit. And the 1L E6 kit will follow in February.
They even asked me about my assessment concerning another new potential product. You would not do that if you want to "pull the plug".
I am very optimistic that Tetenal will be a stronger company after this process.
And if you like Tetenal products, just continue to use them. That is the best to support them now.
The market news at Photokina have been very good and encouraging. The film rival is gaining strength. I intend to publish a detailed report about that topic here on photrio. But please be a bit patient, because I have so much work to do. It will take some time.

Best regards,
Henning

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation. Good to hear.

 

[AgX]

If that all was that simple, the first question is why Tetenal did not made the decisions on the planned restructuring before? Why did they become dependant on a supplier?
Insolvency is not a cold, it is a most serious, life threatening situation for a firm. A firm just cannot apply just so to be protected from creditors to re-invent them in peace. Purposely letting a firm go into such situation even is a crime over here.

However that the court accepted the application for this still rare insolvency procedure in selfmanagement means that at least they see a chance for a resuscitation in some form.

 

[AgX]

A further question would be what such restructuring would mean for us if the restreucturing will succeed and creditors paid? The official statement is contradictory on this.

 

[Henning Serger]

If that all was that simple, the first question is why Tetenal did not made the decisions on the planned restructuring before?

Because they of course cannot know before that they will not get one of their main products for a time span of several months.
Lots of liquidity problems (with following insolvency procedures) are caused not by the affected company, but by suppliers or customers.
One of the smaller German photo chemical manufacturers was for example in danger of getting in insolvency because one of his main customers did not pay him (and used some criminal actions, too). Fortunately the manufacturer survived and the bad guy who caused the problems was convicted by court. And his company does not exist anymore, either.

Best regards,
Henning