Topic: Ilford Polaroid talks fail

[roryot]

Mike Johnson posted this yesterday on his "The Online Photograper" blog -

"... Ilford (Harman) and Polaroid had been in discussions about Ilford Photo taking on production of Polaroid's black and white professional instant sheet film. Despite their best efforts, the prospective partners reported in April that they could not find a commercially viable way forward.

Harman Chairman Phil Harris said, "The processes involved in the manufacture and assembly of professional instant sheet film products are very demanding, and it would require substantial investment to re-establish them at Harman technology's site in Cheshire, England. When compared with current and projected sales for the products, it was clear that such an investment could not be justified. While we had hoped to work together on continuing the production of instant sheet film, it is cost prohibitive to meet the declining demand. As a company, we are saddened that such an inspirational form of expression will disappear. But we will always remain staunchly committed to the long term future of monochrome photography in all its facets and we will continue to do everything we can to support it." (From an Ilford press release, quoted on the APUG board by Simon Galley of Ilford.)  ..."


I guess Fuji are the only possible candidates left in the market, personally I'm not optimistic.

[Typhoon]

What "declining market"?  I wouldn't mind betting that the market has grown substantially over the past 2 or 3 years with the influence of websites like Polanoid and others - but of course that would not suit the agenda of companies that would like to curry favour with enthusiasts by making it seem like they were dead keen to take over the brand and products but then "regretfully" saying that it is not an economic proposition, thus conveniently saving themselves having to shell out any actual cash - which they never intended to do in the first place anyway, their expression of "interest" just being a marketing device to get their name in the news.  I'm not suggesting any company has done this, mind you; it is just a theoretical and cynical suggestion about what might well happen!

[LT]

Having had some dealings with the ilford crew at Mobberly, I'd say your hypothetical assessment certainly would not apply to them - and business approaches aside, Harman Technology have no need to gain free advertising for the Ilford Brand through such means.  But of course, you have to recognise the main purpose for any business is to make money - in order for Harman to take on the mono polaroid manufacturing, they'd either have to pay for the costs of dismantling, shipping and re-constructing all the incredibly specialised manufacturing equipment, or have new equipment made for them at Mobberly, or buy the premises/ equipment and operate from the current polaroid plant.  None of which I could ever see as being viable for a company which is really quite suprisingly small - and dont forget they were nearly out of business a few years ago, they're only just getting back up to speed with the new set up, so to take on the polaroid problem would take a huge leap of faith. I could never see it happeing.  But good on them for at least considering it I say.

The Harman Technology (Ilfordphoto) company really has an interesting approach to their business.  They regularly invite photographers to open days for tours of the factory - usually organised at apug.org.  They're taking names for the next tour (to happen later this year), it's really worth going.  You might have a different hypothetical view of them if you did  

[LT]

also - sorry to harp on ....

The whole of the film market is in decline.  Film has become niche in photography, and Poloroid was already niche before that.  most on-shoot proofing is done using digital now, even if the rest of the work will be done on film (which hardly ever happens anyway) and that was a huge market for Polaroid.  SO it;s hard to see that polaroid is in anyway part of a stable or improving market. the only people using the stuff these days are people like us.

[rdbkorn]

Good points, Leon. I think the transition we're witnessing is a shift from film based photography being a mass medium (family snapshots, fashion photography, press etc) to an artists' medium. In this modern day and age, you can still buy oil paints, watercolour paints, pastels etc even though the market for these items is relatively small. The introduction of acrylic paint materials certainly cut into the oil paint market, but didn't kill it simply because the convenience of acrylic paint comes with trade-offs. Some artists just find oil paints to be more appropriate to their work or way or working. Digital photography has some advantages for artists as well as the family photographer, but there are obvious trade-offs and film will continue to be the choice for many artists.

As far as growing the market and websites like Polanoid or LSI are concerned - I generally curb my enthusiasm for these. I think its great the sites exist and showcase film photography, but I also think the reality is that of every 100 people new to film photography who get enthusiastic from visiting polanoid or LSI and buy a camera and some film, 99 of them will not purchase additional film once they've shot the first batch. So unless several million people are visiting these sites a year, the sites are not growing the film market to any measurable extent.

Paul