Niall,
as I and Franz said before: there is no need to panic and aspecially no need to stop B/W printing !
WE have to see what happens @ Ilford. I don?t know how many coating lines they have.
If they have a small one and a big one they can get rid of the big one and continue on the small one.
This market will survice yet not as a mass market for which these huge plants were build.
It is not even so much a matter of wages it is more a matter of property value.
Did you read in this one newspaper how big the Ilford factory is ?
I forgott but it was HUGE.
Take this times the property value in England and you see why the owners think about shutting it down.
Technically they can survive everywhere but if they only have one large coating alley standing on valuable ground this is what the owners look at.
Flatten it and sell it with profit or keep it and see no revenue for years.
The demand is as it is and cannot be increased anymore ever again.
So it is all a question of adapting to the new environment.
BTW I want to make clear here that our other partners- even though they could theoretically profit by taking some shares of Ilford?s market- not necessarily profit overall and thus I am NOT HAPPY about the situation.
If the biggest buyer for B/W paper base and raw materials disappears this will have a major impact on the availability of raw materials and prices for these.
ILFORD has the world?s best retail channels together with Kodak. There is no way we can put Foma or efke Films in any gas Station in the US & England.
Most of this market will simply be lost with not so dedicated spontaneus buyers who at least still got some Ilford film locally beeing unable to buy it at their local store.
This would have happened slowly overe the coming years but a jump is always worse.
So we all hope that Ilford can continue. We need them for the high quality high price segment as a suppliyer. Without them our turnover will be affected in a negative way.
Mirko
(Dieser Beitrag wurde zuletzt bearbeitet: 30-08-2004, 06:18 PM von Mirko Boeddecker.)
as I and Franz said before: there is no need to panic and aspecially no need to stop B/W printing !
WE have to see what happens @ Ilford. I don?t know how many coating lines they have.
If they have a small one and a big one they can get rid of the big one and continue on the small one.
This market will survice yet not as a mass market for which these huge plants were build.
It is not even so much a matter of wages it is more a matter of property value.
Did you read in this one newspaper how big the Ilford factory is ?
I forgott but it was HUGE.
Take this times the property value in England and you see why the owners think about shutting it down.
Technically they can survive everywhere but if they only have one large coating alley standing on valuable ground this is what the owners look at.
Flatten it and sell it with profit or keep it and see no revenue for years.
The demand is as it is and cannot be increased anymore ever again.
So it is all a question of adapting to the new environment.
BTW I want to make clear here that our other partners- even though they could theoretically profit by taking some shares of Ilford?s market- not necessarily profit overall and thus I am NOT HAPPY about the situation.
If the biggest buyer for B/W paper base and raw materials disappears this will have a major impact on the availability of raw materials and prices for these.
ILFORD has the world?s best retail channels together with Kodak. There is no way we can put Foma or efke Films in any gas Station in the US & England.
Most of this market will simply be lost with not so dedicated spontaneus buyers who at least still got some Ilford film locally beeing unable to buy it at their local store.
This would have happened slowly overe the coming years but a jump is always worse.
So we all hope that Ilford can continue. We need them for the high quality high price segment as a suppliyer. Without them our turnover will be affected in a negative way.
Mirko
