Ilford Photo

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. 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. 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.