By the 2000s, as the UK/Swiss company Ilford Imaging, the decline of the film market saw the UK company in receivership by 2004, but rescued by a management buy-out, Harman Technology Ltd, which today continues the production of traditional black-and-white photographic products, under the Ilford, Kentmere and Harman brands.

[1] Harman Technology holds license rights to the Ilford brand for its black and white photographic materials, but other than a common heritage there is now no connection between the two companies.

The company acquired a 14 acre site, adjacent to Woodman Road and planned to provide employment for 350 people.

In 1989, Ciba-Geigy sold Ilford to USA-based International Paper company, also owners of graphic arts materials manufacturer Anitec.

It was subsequently sold onto Paradigm Global Partners LLP in May 2010 before being declared bankrupt on 9 December 2013 resulting in the closure of the Marly plant.

In 2015 Fotoimpex, owner of the ADOX photographic brand and a small scale photographic factory outside Berlin acquired use of the former Ilford Imaging (Ciba Geigy) machine E, medium scale coating line at Marly,[14] with the intention to begin coating ADOX film there in 2018.

The company, now trading as Ilford Photo, produced high quality monochrome photographic products.

To finance the purchase, the Mobberley factory site was sold to Isola Investments Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Perviaz Naviede Family Trust with Ilford Photo remaining as tenant.

[17] Production moved to Mobberley and in 2009 two new classic grain black and white films were added under the Kentmere brand.

Harman also contract manufactures similar black and white films for other brands including AgfaPhoto (APX), Rollei (RPX) and Oriental (Seagull).

[18] In 2012, the company invested £350,000 in a 35mm film cassette making plant, it had acquired from Ferrania, bringing production back in house after relying on external suppliers for 50 years to provide long term surety of supply.

[22] On 14 September 2015, 10 years on from the original management buy-out, Ilford Photo announced that Harman Technology Limited had been acquired by Pemberstone Ventures Ltd.[23] In 2017 the Ilford Lab Direct service, operating from the factory site in the UK was re-named Harman Lab.

In December 2018, it launched Simplicity a new range of black and white developing chemicals packed in small sachets, designed to process 2x135 or 1x120 format films to improve convenience for new or low volume users.

In October 2023, Harman commenced a viral marketing campaign, for a new product, which was revealed at the launch in California, US on 1st December 2023 to be an experimental 35mm colour negative film; 'Harman Phoenix 200' which was developed and manufactured in house over 12 months.

The Ilford Witness was a rangefinder camera with interchangeable lenses announced in 1947, but not released until 1953 because of manufacturing difficulties; there is an example shown in Science Museum Collections.

In 1957, Ilford released the Sportsman, a rebranded West German Dacora Dignette, as a lightly built and cheap 35 mm camera to compete with the better made and more expensive Kodak Retinette.

The Monobar allowed the front (lens) and rear (film plane) of the camera to be moved and rotated, bringing the scheimpflug principle to the 35mm world.

The launch saw the introduction of a dedicated website The service has continued to expand offering medium and large format processing and digital black and white Lightjet prints.