TETENAL is Back: 173-Year-Old Photo Chemistry Brand Launches New Store

After coming back from the brink of insolvency with an employee led buyout in February 2019, TETENAL is announcing that they are back in full force.

The new TETENAL 1847 GmbH commenced operations on April 1st, 2019. Since then, they have been producing and distributing chemicals from the same location as the old TETENAL company. TETENAL now has a renewed focus on direct to consumer sales in addition to their traditional business-to-business sales model. To reflect this, they have relaunched their online shop with shipping worldwide.

For September, they are offering a 5% discount with the code: tetenalpromo09.

This relaunch also includes a host of new black and white chemistry for sale, including film and photo paper developer, stop, and fixer; photo paper toners and stabilizer; wash aids and wetting solutions; and even chlorobromide emulsion for use in traditional wet plate photography.

The newly available Neofin Blue black and white film developer. Image courtesy: TETENAL

TETENAL also has another piece of exciting news. They are in the final phase of development of TETENAL Developer Tablets, with the last steps being package design and kit sizing. TETENAL Developer Tablets are dry photochemistry which is dissolvable in water to make working solutions.

Some photochemistry is currently available in dry powder form, but the majority consists of liquid concentrates. Liquid concentrates have a higher weight; take up more volume, and most importantly, they are susceptible to oxidation. This oxidation means that their shelf life once opened is limited and normally poses a challenge for low volume film processing or printing.

These new developer tablets will mean that working solutions can be mixed a la carte. This has a host of advantages which include the reduction in costs from shipping and unused chemistry expiring. Also, the tablets will require less space for storage and the risk of expired chemistry ruining film or photo paper will be minimized.

Placeholder image of the new Developer Tablets. Image courtesy: TETENAL

The return of TETENAL marks a brighter future for the world of photography, print media, and motion pictures. Unknown to most, TETENAL is the largest and one of the oldest photochemical companies in the world.


P.S. In early 2019, Ludwig Hagelstein wrote a detailed article on the history of TETENAL, how important TETENAL is to visual media, and why it is too big to fail.

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