An established brand is valuable, and in some cases preserving the power of that brand can lead to some confusing information. This happened recently at Ilford and at Ilford. It happened with the media buzzing with news that “Ilford is bankrupt!” That is absolutely false and true at the same time. To explain this confusing situation a little history first.
Around 2005 the company we had all had know for decades as simply Ilford split into two separate companies. One company, Harman Technology Ltd., continues to make HP5 film, black & white silver gelatin photo paper and liquid chemistry under the brand “Ilford Photo.” This company is definitely NOT going bankrupt, in fact managing director Peter Elton stated:
“I can report that HARMAN technology Limited is in excellent financial health with exciting plans in place to enable us to continue achieving our ambitious growth targets.” 7/31/13
Back to 2005. The other half of Ilford that makes inkjet paper, color products such as Ilfocolor and other RA4 products was acquired by a company based in Switzerland and sells its products under the brand “Ilford Imaging Switzerland GmbH.” According to World Radio Switzerland, Ilford Imaging Switzerland GmbH IS bankrupt.
So don’t worry our source of black and white silver gelatin photo paper and black and white film and chemistry is doing just fine. Long live black & white.