A VISION FOR GROWTH

While none of us can predict with certainty how this coming year will pan out for the trade, here at BPI News we’ve been seeking out reasons for cautious optimism at home, even if the global picture still looks a little bumpy

At the time of writing inflation appears to be slowly slightly and the UK has avoided recession by the narrowest of margins, with last December’s 0.5% decline in GDP more modest than expected. However we’re all due another sizeable jump in what we’re paying for our energy from this April and, despite a cautiously more positive outlook, the Bank of England continues to raise interest rates in the short term, increasing the misery for those of us with business loans and mortgages. While supply chain issues appear to be easing for those in the photo and video trade, transport costs, paperwork, exchange rates and nation-wide industrial action affecting key services (and one-in-six UK businesses as a result) all need to be carefully monitored. As does demand. Globally, the continuing war in Ukraine and suspected Chinese spy balloons over the US and Canada as we go to press are prolonging the cloud of uncertainty. And we’ve not even mentioned January’s bizarre hacking of the Royal Mail which meant packages to be sent internationally were halted for weeks.

Printing from phones saw the hottest demand, but we also did well with copying old photos and slides along with video transfers. Canvasses and panels sold well too. All these services can be completed in house which means the margins are correspondingly high.”

Steven Lord, owner, Lords Photography

But, rather than just becoming locked in an endless cycle of crisis management, how do we move forward with a vision for growth? We’ve already dealt with how to best do business in unprecedented times on several occasions in these pages and, as a real-world case study, you couldn’t do much better than read in this issue of how Skylum in Ukraine has continued to grow and develop against the backdrop of war. Its team has been spread out and conducting business remotely in a not too dissimilar fashion, it tells us, to what we all experienced during lockdown; though by comparison that country’s resilience and forbearence knocks all our personal struggles over the past three years into a cocked hat. There’s no doubt as we get into 2023 the overall picture still looks challenging; 2022 was a brutal year for retailers and their supporting supply chain organisations, with UK businesses reportedly failing at their fastest rate since the 2008 financial crisis and bankruptcies rising 30% over 2021. Pundits predict that for the first half of the year it may be hard to spot those traditional green shoots. Though despite the International Monetary Fund painting a pessimistic view for the UK compared to other major economies, those self-same experts also predict we are nearing the end of the dip. Plus, with surviving retail and supply chain companies having learned to adapt to challenging market conditions, it’s also suggested there won’t be as many companies

Got your own ideas about how the photo industry can counter the challenges arising from the cost of living crisis, failing in 2023. While that’s good news of sorts, we don’t just have to look at forecasts to make our minds up which way the wind is blowing. With no Photography Show happening this year, we’ll get a chance to take the temperature of our industry in person at The Societies Convention & Trade Show this March, as ‘the only show in town’ this year. We’ll be reporting back from this year’s event in our next issue.

Thanking the ‘Lord’

Print To The Rescue

In the meantime, in casting around for positivity from our own industry, we can look to our news pages for details of exciting products to potentially grow the content creation market, now we’re all spending a lot more time online. But what of bricks and mortar stores? As we were putting together this edition we heard from the ever-upbeat and proactive Steven Lord of Lords Photography in Brighouse. He tells us that over Christmas and New Year his sales were up 30% on the previous year, and in peoples’ budgets during a cost of living crisis, in fact “as Christmas got closer we had a shop full of customers from 9am to 5pm. We have six Fuji kiosks and six printers along with an Epson wide format printer and we certainly needed all of them to cope with the demand. I think people were definitely being careful with their spending this year but thankfully a family photo in a frame for £15 fitted the bill perfectly.

“Printing from phones saw the hottest demand, but we also did well with copying old photos and slides along with video transfers. Canvasses and panels sold well too. All these services can be completed in house which means the margins are correspondingly high. We produced thousands of high quality prints, plus frames, which we sourced from Swains, produced outstanding sales volumes. My message is to give great customer service and maintain high margins. Business in January and February can be pretty grim, so putting as much money in the bank in December and then hunkering down and waiting for better times in the spring is the plan that has worked for me.”

From reading the above it’s clear that pivoting to mainly printing and framing in recent times has obviously contributed hugely to Lords’ continued success, especially as Steven notes: “hardware sales were poor over Christmas, and that’s being polite. With cameras and telescopes out of favour, my thoughts that budgets were being trimmed were confirmed. Sales of cameras in the summer were good and with supplies coming through I’d imagined Christmas would be good also, but instead there was a sharp drop off in demand. Thank goodness cameras are only a sideline for me these days!”

Pundits predict that for the first half of the year it may be hard to spot those traditional green shoots. Though despite the International Monetary Fund painting a pessimistic view for the UK compared to other major economies, those self-same experts also predict we are nearing the end of the dip.” fact beat those of 2019, the last year before Covid, while profit margins are also at an all-time high. So what gives?

Ironically, Steven asserts that the recent postal strikes have actually been good for him, as a business with a strong high street presence known locally for its helpful and friendly service. Though concerned that photography might be viewed as a luxury and so cut from

Cameras becoming a sideline for a photo dealer? In an era in which the once unthinkable has now become the most likely outcome, it pays to jump on whatever’s working. The potential high volumes and high margins of print certainly have their attraction, as does second hand and carving out your own particular niche – selling analogue film being one example. We’d love to hear your own experiences at the current coalface of photo retail and whether your thoughts chime with the above. Get in touch via info@bpinews.co.uk or care to share what’s working for you (without giving away trade secrets)? Then do get in touch direct via info@bpinews.co.uk