CR Kennedy & Company Pty Ltd has joined forces with Chugai Photo Chemical Company Ltd to launch a 2m Swiss francs offer for the brand names of Ilford Imaging Switzerland which ceased trading earlier this year and went into liquidation.
CR Kennedy imports and distributes photo equipment, while Chugai sells accessories.
Around 130 staff were laid off at Ilford’s factory in Marly, Switzerland last December – the cash-strapped firm having declared itself insolvent a month earlier.
Earlier this month, Australian photo website ProCounter first reported that the ‘bold bid’ for the ‘Ilford and Galerie names’ would result in production of Ilford Galerie paper resuming at the Marly plant.
Amateur Photographer (AP) has today learned that the bid looks set to go through, the deadline for any higher offers having expired yesterday.
However, speaking from Fribourg, Yves Auberson, of liquidators Fidexis SA, would not confirm whether the £1.3m bid has been successful, in case any higher offer remains in the postal system, as yet undelivered.
Auberson told AP it was also too early to say whether production of Ilford Galerie would resume at the Marly factory.
Ilford Imaging Switzerland is separate from Ilford Photo, the trading name of UK-based Harman Technology which produces traditional b&w photographic papers and film in Cheshire.
