I was distributing Foma to the East, or beginning to, with the help of my friend Misha. Foma tended to talk out of both side of their mouth then, and really did not seem to know what they were doing generally. We both tried to offer them help, as Misha was selling already via BH.
I think they just did not realize the timing and the fact that a niche market in the US was bigger than their home market.
Their former sister company, Neobrom, was run by a guy who just shut down when he got his Mercedes after the Revolution.
I met with him and he seemed to want to convert entirely to color and compete with Kodak, something that was very unlikely to happen.
It was hard to communicate then, and they did not know how to export, charging VAT, not shipping, etc. I had a friend who was in import export who helped me with one shipment.
I sold off half of an order of 5000 sheets of paper, and everyone remarked on what an excellent paper it was. Warm toned from the base, and it processed like the old days.
They had papers that seemed to remind me of the products from the 60's here, similar, IMO, to what I recall were the products of Dupont and Ansco. Rich subtle blacks, heavy base, a great variety of products. Even a Silver Iodide Contact paper. They did not seem to know what a gold mine they had, as people were still remarking on those lost oldies. They evidentally had strong ties to Ukraine as well, as they showed me some film samples they were packaging.
Hey, the plant is still there, I think, in BRNO.
Have you ever used R 09, the old Rodinal formula still available in the East?
John |
