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PRESS RELEASE from Fujifilm UK - Photofinishing Division
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Release Date: 13 October 2009

Image Downloads: www.newsfeeduk.com/fujifilm

Sigfoto builds successful D&P network

Independent pharmacy wholesaler Sigma Pharmaceuticals PLC is having notable success with the Sigfoto D&P operation Fujifilm helped them to set up.

Sigma Pharmaceuticals is an independent pharmacy wholesaler in the UK, owned and managed by the Shah family. In 2006, in response to the withdrawal of Colorama from pick-up-and-return photo printing, Sigma asked Fujifilm UK to help them set up their own Sigfoto service, to fill the gap in the market.

Sigma had the commitment and the finances to invest in starting up a photo operation. They knew Fujifilm had the experience, the expertise, and the solutions they were looking for.

Peter Wigington, the Fujifilm key account manager assigned to Sigma, explained: “Sigma are very successful and the people behind it understand business, and although photo wasn’t one of their areas of expertise, they had analysed it as a business opportunity. They knew they had the business potential and distribution channels. From my point of view, the key thing I assessed their idea on was that they had access to 5,000 pharmacists who might want to make prints. Therefore, for me, the business dynamic was for a successful business partnership for Fujifilm that was based on the on-going supply of equipment and paper. The marketing for the business was already in place, in the form of the existing channel distribution. It was clear it could work.”

Bharat Shah, managing director, Sigma Pharmaceuticals plc, says: “We’ve always sold Fujifilm. My brother, Kamal, has developed a good relationship with Peter Wigington and his team. We told Fujifilm we’d found a hole in the market when Colorama and Agfa fell off, and invited them to help us fill it.”

Peter Wigington continues: “Fujifilm was happy to come along and supply the extra knowledge Sigma needed. They had the premises, they had enough space, they had the staff. They were happy to commit the capital to the investment.”

Peter Wigington recognised that what Sigma were looking for was a 'hub-and-spoke' out-lab business that could be operated by a regional wholesale distributor. The key factor that enables a pharmaceutical wholesaler to operate a pick-up-and-return photo service is that its existing distribution logistics support a 24 hour turnaround as a 24 hour service is what out-labs are used for.

The wholesaler can exploit its ability to aggregate demand from many pharmacies to create the economies of scale that allow it to operate a hub of high-volume production equipment run by shifts overnight. This way it can provide a service that individual pharmacies in its spoke-network otherwise couldn’t.

Bharat says: “We already had the collection and delivery of medicines service set up. So to set up the photo service didn't commit any extra overheads. It was just the internal administration that had to be implemented. For us, the photo service idea works well. It adds an extra revenue earner onto the backbone infrastructure we already have.”

An out-lab facility on a hub-and-spoke network like this allows even pharmacies with no photo printing of their own to extend a service to their customers. Photo printing is one of the traditional things that customers in the UK expect at a pharmacy. It’s profitable for the pharmacist, and it generates footfall in their shop. Even those pharmacies that do have their own printing equipment will still use a wholesaler’s hub for their 24 hour service.

The classic model for a pick-up-and-return 24 hour service was historically the kind used by national chains. This involves fulfilment by third-party wholesale photofinishers with main-lab equipment.

An industrial structure like this isn’t suited to the smaller scale a regional pharmaceutical wholesaler operates on. Peter Wigington advised Sigma to set up its own photofinishing hub based on compact, easy-to-use, modern, affordable Fujifilm Frontier digital minilab equipment.

As well as supplying equipment and support, Fujifilm would also provide training for all Sigfoto staff and would help to design the business’s documentation, packaging and workflow.

Sigfoto has approximately doubled its volumes in the twelve months to August 2009. Its number of customer accounts has increased approximately 20% in the 18 months to the same date.

Paras Shah says: “Over the last 18 months Sigfoto’s accounts have increased from about 700 to almost 850 now. A lot of this is down to word-of-mouth, stimulated by our convention in Kenya last year, where we promoted the Sigfoto brand to delegates from Sigma’s UK customers. We do send out Sigfoto flyers every month to the pharmacies. One of my projects this year is to increase the marketing that Sigfoto does.”

He continues: “We’ve had steady growth. We’re projecting to grow Sigfoto to 1,000 accounts by the end of 2010. That’s a rate of about 150 new accounts every 18 months.”

But Sigfoto isn’t just experiencing growth in accounts. It’s also finding volumes from individual customers are increasing too. Bharat Shah says: “What we have noticed is we are now getting a lot more photo work from pharmacists who initially gave us very little.”

Following its successful first years, Sigfoto is now looking to expand the business with additional services in new areas, things like large format printing, canvas prints, gifts and novelties.

ENDS.

* Note: this news release is issued electronically and will not be duplicated with a posted copy

About Fujifilm
Fujifilm is a global leader in imaging technology, products and services including digital cameras, photofinishing, digital storage and recording media, consumer and professional film, motion picture film, professional video, printing systems, medical imaging, office technology, flat panel displays and graphic arts. The company employs more than 73,000 people worldwide, with 178 subsidiaries stretching across four continents.

Uniquely placed to be a market leader in digital imaging, Fujifilm develops and manufactures its own sensors, lenses and processing technology. In addition to its production plants and R&D operations in Japan, the company has key manufacturing facilities in Europe and the USA for core products such as colour film, colour paper, single use cameras and CTP printing plates, and has further factories in Brazil and China. It has a global turnover in excess of £13 billion.

In the UK, Fujifilm has been supplying the imaging, printing and graphics industries, as well as consumers, professional and enthusiast photographers, with high quality, innovative products and services for over 25 years. Fujifilm UK currently employs more than 450 people and has become one of the country's most popular photographic and imaging brands.

© 2009, Fujifilm UK Ltd. Specifications are subject to change.

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Fujifilm (UK) Ltd
Unit 10A
St Martins Business Centre
St Martins Way
Bedfordshire MK42 0LF
Tel: 01234 572144
E-mail: minilabs@fuji.co.uk
Web: www.fujifilm.co.uk/minilabs
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Written and distributed by WPS Media
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Contact: Peter Brandon
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