ILFORD IMAGING, one of the last surviving manufacturers of black and white photographic products, yesterday collapsed into administration.
The company’s traditional photographic business, which makes black and white films and high resolution photographic paper, is expected to be sold by Grant Thornton, the administrators.
The move follows a 26 per cent plunge in sales at the UK division in the first seven months of this year, blamed on falling demand for black and white pictures and a surge in the popularity of digital imaging.
The company had kicked off the year celebrating its 125th anniversary.
The group started when Alfred Hugh Harman began making Gelatine Dry Plates in the basement of his house in Cranbrook Road, Ilford, Essex and developed into one of the world’s leading film makers, loved by professional photographers.
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The UK division employs 740 people at Mobberley in Cheshire, where it principally manufactures black and white supplies.
Mark Byers, head of recovery and reorganisation services at Grant Thornton, which is handling the administration process, said that it planned to analyse the traditional photographic business with a view to selling it as a going concern.
The company, which was bought by Doughty Hanson, the private equity company, for £85 million in 1998, also said that it planned to sell its Swiss business, which develops and manufactures digital inkjet products.
The Swiss division continues to trade normally and is not in any form of insolvency. Mr Byers said the division had a large market share and the potential for further growth.
In the past four years Ilford said that it had managed to reverse a decline in sales by refocusing the business on digital photography products, with sales in the year to December 2003 hitting $233 million (£129 million), up from $210 million in 2002.
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Profit growth at the digital inkjet business has continued to accelerate, but the decline in the black and white photographic market has continued. This, together with the weakness of the US dollar and a decision to reduce black and white film stock by many shops, has led to losses.