Harman Technology, trading as Ilford Photo, is a UK-based manufacturer of photographic materials known worldwide for its Ilford branded black-and-white film, papers and chemicals and other analog photography supplies. Historically it also published the Ilford Manual of Photography, a comprehensive manual of everything photographic, including the optics, physics and chemistry of photography, along with recipes for many developers.
Under the ownership of the industrial conglomerate ICI in the 1960s, the company produced a range of Ilfochrome (Cibachrome) and Ilfocolor colour printing materials at a new plant in Switzerland developed in partnership with the Swiss company CIBA-Geigy, which later acquired ICI's shares. By the 2000s, as the UK/Swiss company Ilford Imaging, the decline of the film market saw the UK company in receivership by 2004, but rescued by a management buy-out, Harman Technology Ltd, which today continues the production of traditional black-and-white photographic materials, under the Ilford, Kentmere and Harman brands.
The Ilford brand is also shared with the remnant of the former Swiss arm of the company, Ilford Imaging Europe, which applies it to a range of inkjet papers and a disposable colour film camera, but other than a common heritage there is now no connection between the two companies.
History
Britannia Works Company
The company was founded in 1879 by Alfred Hugh Harman as the Britannia Works Company. Initially making photographic plates, it grew to occupy a large site in the centre of Ilford.
Ilford Ltd
In 1902, it took the name of the town to become Ilford Limited, despite the objections of the local council. 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, in Great 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 this branch became Selo Ltd , a major new manufacturing site was developed in Woodman Road, Brentwood, Essex, 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.
Ilford Imaging
In 1997 Ilford Anitec was sold on to Doughty Hanson & Co a British private equity fund manager and subsequently rebranded Ilford Imaging. In 2002 plans were announced to redevelop the original part of the factory (the former Rajar works) for housing to release funds to re-invest in the business, with the houses subsequently built in 2004–07.
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.