Herve,
Please find attached my reply on the APUG forum regarding this issue.
Best regards,
Mirko
As there seems to be quite a lot of confusion here, I would like to clarify most of the issues.
Until 2002, efke 400 film was Ilford HP5 (without the ‘plus’) purchased by efke and repackaged for Maco, whilst very small quantities were also sold in Croatia.
When Maco ended its partnership with efke in 2002/2003, they also ceased business with Ilford and were on the verge of closing their film production plant completely in late 2003, when they went into liquidation. It was only thanks to our intervention and the tremendous efforts of the efke employees that production was kept going; from 2003 to 2004 we were their sole customer and did everything we could to support them in maintaining production, including redirecting orders away from other factories in favour of efke.
In the meantime, Forte and Ilford ran into difficulties and the Agfa disaster occurred.
So from mid-2004 onwards, we faced a different situation.
We decided to proceed with our ADOX brand as we did not want to prevent efke from seeking other outlets, because the most important thing for us was that the factory survived and that we could continue to sell their products for many years to come. This requires mass production, and having more sellers means they can sell more than just one product. In order to separate our marketing activities, we went ahead with our ADOX brand. Efke continued to sell small quantities separately in their own Efke boxes.
For this purpose, we also sold them two reels of ILFORD film to enable them to produce their KB 400 film for the local Croatian market. All Ilford raw material in their stock since 2003 is owned solely by FOTOIMPEX.
These two reels (around 2,200 films) were sold in Croatia and Europe.
We even sold off 1,000 rolls at one go because we could not get fresh CHM 400 quickly enough.
In late 2005, the last films from this batch were sold out and we did not sell any further rolls to Efke because Ilford told us that they would no longer supply raw materials for the CHM product line. So we kept the remaining rolls under wraps and also stopped producing the 100ft bulk rolls.
CHM 400 is now being sold at our usual competitive prices, despite Ilford having raised prices three times in the meantime, and once it’s gone we can only offer Ilford to those looking for an identical film. In future, we will sell another 100 and 400 professional film, but we will change the name to make it clear that it is a different product.
The efke 400 film currently being sold is AGFAPAN 400+. A film that Agfa was no longer able to launch themselves. It is cut from jumbo rolls that efke is converting for another customer. It differs slightly from the old APX. It is NOT an efke product. Efke cannot produce any film with a speed higher than 100 ASA. They lack the capability to coat multiple layers as well as the necessary sensitising technology.
Regards from Berlin, Germany,
Mirko
FOTOIMPEX
