Britannia Works The company was founded in 1879 by
Alfred Hugh Harman as
Britannia Works, which became the
Britannia Works Company in 1886. It was renamed
Britannia Works Company Limited in December 1891. Initially making
photographic plates, it grew to occupy a large site in the centre of
Ilford.
Ilford, Limited In 1901, it took the name of the town to become
Ilford Limited, which was disputed by the local council. The matter was settled by placing a comma between the word Ilford and Limited, giving
Ilford, Limited; the comma was finally removed in 1951. Production of roll films commenced in 1912 and the
Mobberley (Rajar) factory was acquired in 1928. In 1903 Ilford Ltd., manufacturers of photographic dry-plates, extended their operations to
Warley, Brentwood. The company acquired a 14-acre site, adjacent to Woodman Road and planned to provide employment for 350 people. The works were enlarged in later years, and in the mid 1920s the branch became Selo Ltd, with a major new manufacturing site developed on the site, known locally as "Selo Works". The marketing name Selo, for roll films, first appeared in 1930. In 1959,
ICI acquired a majority share holding in Ilford. In 1963 Ciba AG, Switzerland, which had bought Lumiere, France, the preceding year, and which already owned Swiss photographic coating company Tellko, began to acquire shares in Ilford as part of a commercial co-operation between Ciba and Ilford to develop Ciba's dye-bleach print material for making prints directly from colour transparencies. Originally called Cilchrome ('Cil' derived from the names Ciba, Ilford and Lumière) the eventual product name was Cibachrome. Ciba built a new plant in Marly, Switzerland, to coat Cibachrome, renamed Ilfochrome in 1992 after Ciba withdrew use of its name. The old Tellko factory nearby in the centre of Fribourg was used as the finishing department. In 1969 Ciba acquired all ICI shares in Ilford to become sole owner of Ilford Limited. A year later Ciba merged with JR Geigy to become
Ciba-Geigy. In 1983, its
UK headquarters was moved to
Mobberley,
Cheshire.
Ilford Anitec In 1989, Ciba-Geigy sold Ilford to
USA-based
International Paper company, also owners of graphic arts materials manufacturer Anitec. The two companies were merged in 1990 to become
Ilford Anitec. In 1996, the sales and administration offices were also moved from
London to Mobberley. In the same year, the Selo Works site, in Brentwood, was closed and sold off for housing development. On 20 August 2004, after earlier that year celebrating 125 years of photographic manufacture, the UK company, Ilford Imaging UK Ltd, went into
receivership with debts of £40m. The Swiss manufacturing site and distribution companies was put up for sale as a going concern. The Swiss part of the company;
Ilford Imaging Switzerland GmbH, and the plant at Marly was bought by the Oji Paper Company of
Japan in July 2005. It produced
inkjet products and high quality colour photographic products. It was subsequently sold onto Paradigm Global Partners LLP in May 2010 before being declared bankrupt on 9 December 2013 resulting in the closure of the Marly plant. The Ilford Imaging and Ilford brand and trademarks (but not the Marly plant) was acquired by a joint venture of Australian firm
CR Kennedy & Company Pty Ltd and the Japan-based Chugai Photo Chemical Company, named Ilford Imaging Europe GmbH and now based in Germany. The Galerie range of inkjet papers was relaunched in August 2014. The company holds the rights to the Ilford trademark for photographic applications but otherwise has no connection to Ilford Photo. The Marly site is now Marly Innovation Centre with alternative uses found for the original buildings. In 2015 Fotoimpex, owner of the
ADOX photographic brand and a small scale photographic factory outside Berlin acquired use of the former Ilford Imaging (Ciba Geigy) machine E, medium scale coating line at Marly, with the intention to begin coating ADOX film there in 2018.
Harman Technology 2004–2015 The UK site was subject to a management buyout by six former managers of Ilford Imaging UK Limited, which resulted in the formation of Harman Technology Ltd (named after Ilford's founder Alfred Harman) in February 2005. The company, now trading as
Ilford Photo, produced high quality monochrome photographic products. The Ilford brand was retained by Ilford Imaging Europe GmbH and used under licence by Ilford Photo for its existing film products. To finance the purchase, the Mobberley factory site was sold to Isola Investments Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Perviaz Naviede Family Trust with Ilford Photo remaining as tenant. In 2007, Harman Technology acquired Kentmere Photographic Ltd, a manufacturer of photographic paper in
Kentmere, Lake District. Production moved to Mobberley and in 2009 two new classic grain black and white films were added under the Kentmere brand. Originally designed as a lower-priced brand to its Ilford offer to compete in the US market they are now available worldwide with the Kentmere brand particularly aimed at the student market and those new to black and white photography. Harman also contract manufactures similar black and white films for other brands including
AgfaPhoto (APX),
Rollei (RPX) and Oriental (Seagull). In 2012, the company invested £350,000 in a 35mm film cassette making plant, it had acquired from Ferrania, bringing production back in house after relying on external suppliers for 50 years to provide long term surety of supply. The company was also noted as having an 80% share of the black and white photographic market. In 2014, land owners of the 40-acre Mobberley site submitted a planning application to Cheshire East Council to construct 375 homes on the majority of the site including investment to consolidate Ilford Photo operations onto a smaller 7.5 acre campus within the site. The application was refused and an appeal was made to the planning inspectorate in July 2015. Following a public inquiry in 2016, the appeal was rejected.
2015–present On 14 September 2015, 10 years on from the original management buy-out, Ilford Photo announced that Harman Technology Limited had been acquired by Pemberstone Ventures Ltd. In 2017 the Ilford Lab Direct service, operating from the factory site in the UK was re-named Harman Lab. In May 2018, the company announced a refresh of its existing Ilford film packaging, with Kentmere film packaging refreshed in September 2018. In 2019 Ilford celebrated its 140th year with a Silver Ticket Competition; one winning ticket for a factory tour and photographic course being hidden in a 140th anniversary film box and in October the announcement of a number of new products following a teaser campaign on social media. This included Ilford Multigrade V RC Deluxe photographic paper available in Glossy, Pearl and Satin finishes, Ortho Plus film in 135 and 120 formats, an Ilford and Paterson film processing starter kit and a Harman reusable camera supplied with two 35mm Kentmere Pan 400 films. In 2021 Harman introduced the EZ-35 35mm motorised film camera with a fixed focus 31mm, f/11 lens packaged with a roll of HP5 plus. In 2022, the company added 120 medium format to its Kentmere 100 and 400 film ranges. In October 2023, Harman commenced a viral marketing campaign, for a new product, which was revealed at the launch in California, US on 1 December 2023 to be an experimental 35mm colour negative film; 'Harman Phoenix 200' which was developed and manufactured in house over 12 months. The film is high contrast and lacks an anti-halation layer. Due to most default scanner settings being determined with the colour balance of the more common Kodak or Fujifilm emulsions in mind, this film requires adjustment to scanning settings in order to achieve "normal" colour balance. == Harman products ==