Harman mulls darkroom sharing site
CHESHIRE-based Harman Technology, the manufacturer of traditional black and white photographic film, is planning to launch a social media platform that will link photographers up with people who have darkrooms.
The Mobberley-based company, which was created in 2005 following a management buyout at Ilford Imaging, sells film and photographic paper to students studying black and white photography and photographers who prefer film to digital techniques.
Finance director Andy Taylor told TheBusinessDesk.com: “Our aim is to link people up with darkrooms in their areas. We’re currently working on a website that would allow people to link together.
“The key thing for us is there are now more images taken now that at any other time in history. It’s about helping them to process those images in a more traditional way.”
Last year the rising price of silver, which is a a key component in the manufacture of monochrome photographic material, meant many people stocked up but this affected sales later on. In the year to December revenues fell by 15% to £20.1m and pushed the company to a pre-tax loss of £90,332, down from a profit in the prior year of £673,515.
Sales have since rebounded and Mr Taylor said the comapny was on target for revenues of £21m in 2013 and earnings before, interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of £1.3m.
