Ferrania
| private company | |
| Industry | Chemicals, manufacturing |
| Founded | 1923 |
| Headquarters | Cairo Montenotte (SV), Italy |
| Products | Film |
| Website | FILM Ferrania |
FILM Ferrania s.r.l. is a manufacturing company located in Ferrania (Liguria), Italy, founded in 1923 as a maker of photographic film, papers, and photographic equipment, including cameras. The company was purchased in 1964 by the 3M company to become Ferrania 3M, until it was spun off in 1996 to 3M's Imation division. In 1999, Ferrania was acquired by Schroder Ventures and then spun off as a separate company. Subsequently it was acquired by a Genoese shipping company, Gruppo Messina (Ignazio Messina & Co. S.p.A).
History
Original Ferrania
The roots to the Ferrania company lie with the 1882-founded explosives manufacturer SIPE (Società Italiana Prodotti Esplodenti, "Italian Society of Explosives Products"). World War I saw a wide extension of business for SIPE, including the establishment of a new plant situated in the Ferrania hamlet of Cairo Montenotte. With the production and chemical properties of explosives and early film being very similar, towards the end of the war SIPE founded a subsidiary called FILM (Fabbrica Italiana Lamine Milano, "Italian Lamination Factory, Milan") co-owned by the French Pathé Brothers, which effectively became the film company Ferrania, founded in 1923.
In 1932, Ferrania acquired the Milanese photographic plate manufacturer Cappelli, to temporarily become Cappelli-Ferrania, and soon after also Tensi, the city's other large photographic plate manufacturer, before re-naming itself back to just Ferrania in 1938. Ferrania's widest expansion and peak in popularity came in the post-World War II era after 1945, producing films such as Ferraniacolor or the black-and-white Pancro 30 used by Pier Paolo Pasolini for many of his films. In the later years following the 1964 acquisition by 3M and as part of Imation, the company manufactured and sold photographic film under the Solaris, Dynachrome, and Scotch Chrome brands, as well as private label products. Up until 2007, Ferrania remained the only manufacturer of 126 “Instamatic” films after Kodak discontinued them in 1999.
In July 2008, the company's President announced to its unions that manufacture of color film products would cease in December 2008, although as late as March 2009, Ferrania customer service stated that they were still producing 135 format color film in 200 and 400 ASA. However, all manufacture of photographic film had ceased by the end of that year, and in October 2012, Ferrania laid off 198 out of 230 employees formerly working in the manufacture and processing of film.
FILM Ferrania
In 2013, the photographic film production line was acquired by the new company FILM Ferrania s.r.l. which took over some of Ferrania's manufacturing equipment and buildings, as well as a number of those Ferrania technicians laid off in 2012. FILM Ferrania inherited the historic brand Ferrania to launch analog products suitable for the actual needs of the cine/photo market. Ferrania's film production is going to start again in early 2014, with FILM Ferrania having announced in 2013 to re-start production of Solaris FG-100 Plus color negative film and Scotch Chrome 100 color slide film in a variety of formats, with a potential emphasis on cine film.
Nicola Baldini, chief of the new company, in an interview does not rule out the possibility of restart the production of black and white films, like the historical Ferrania Pancro 30.
On November 19, 2013 Film Ferrania presented the main core of production and R&D. It is formed by eight people, with years of experience in the field. In the company's website are visible their names, biography and photos.
On September 2014, Film Ferrania, after an online survey, announced a crowdfounding on the platform Kickstarter to obtain 250.000$ from the founders to buy some machines from the old plant of Ferrania.[1]
On October 29, 2014 Film Ferrania terminated the fundraising campaign reaching 322.420$ (128% of the original target).[2]
Film Ferrania will send in April 2015, as a prize for the donations, films of the first batch of 35mm, 120, super8 and 16mm rolls based on a rearrangement of Scotch Chrome 100.
See also
- List of Italian companies
References
External links
- filmferrania.it – Official company website
- Interview to Nicola Baldini