CR Kennedy and Chugai press release: WORLD FAMOUS ILFORD BRAND NOW IN SAFE HANDS AND TO RE-EMERGE AS A LEADER IN THE GLOBAL IMAGING AND GRAPHICS MARKETS
Chugai Photo Chemical Co Ltd of Tokyo, Japan and CR Kennedy & Company Pty Ltd of Melbourne, Australia, have been successful in their bid for the ILFORD Trade Marks and Associated Assets.
Ilford is a world-famous brand and is one of the great pioneers of the photographic industry, with a proud 135-year history.
The acquisition will see leading products such as Ilford Gallerie Prestige and Ilford Omnijet range continue, with existing ICC profiles, on a world-wide basis.
A new company, Ilford Imaging Europe GMBH has been established as a joint venture and will be responsible for all product development, production, logistics, sales and marketing activities. Clement Kennedy and Arnoud Mekenkamp have been appointed as joint managing directors.
The Ilford brand is now in safe hands. Together, both partners have a combined history of 146 years in the photo industry. They are committed to implementing long-term strategies for growth, with respect for the history and traditions of the Ilford brand. Ilford has for 135 years represented outstanding quality; this will continue.
If they are expecting to get hold of Ilford Films (Harman), they are going to be very disappointed. When the old Swiss company went under this caused A LOT of confusion with people wondering about the film company all of which went away once the Swiss people closed. It looks form this article that the double identity problem is back. This is actually a bad thing.
ReplyDeleteThat's been a while coming! I don't imagine we will be getting the same quality as before now they have just brought the trade name though. Since I used all of my Ilford Galerie stuff in a bit of a printign frenzy I've jumped ship entirely to the PermaJet equivalents which I actually much prefer now & I have tried the Fotospeed equivalents too which filled a void. Do I now go and change my whole print output again?!
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