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PRESS RELEASE from Fujifilm UK - Photofinishing Division
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Release Date: 20 October 2009

Image Downloads: www.newsfeeduk.com/fujifilm

Dry Minilab installed in a film hot-spot

Foto Finish, a Fujifilm Digital Imaging Service (FDIS) member in Chard, Somerset, has found it’s located in a hot-spot for film processing. As much as 50% of its trade involves develop-and-print from traditional camera films. Now, Foto Finish has brought its printing bang up-to-date, with the addition of a new Fujifilm Frontier DL410 Dry Minilab and a film scanner. It has also installed three new Fujifilm SmartPix photo kiosks.

Proprietor, Marie Mears, says that Foto Finish has picked up more and more film developing work, as other outlets in the locality have been withdrawing from that market. She tells us: “One of the big supermarkets has stopped processing any film. They actually send customers to us now. The service at the leading chemists has become quite drawn out too. We’re the only ones that still offer a one-hour service. Our film processing volumes have actually gone up, particularly from single-use cameras.”

Other factors contribute to the hot-spot effect. As well as handling C41, 35mm and APS film, Foto Finish can also develop, scan and print from 120 format negatives. This allows them to develop for local professional photographers who use that format. Foto Finish prints each image manually and hand-checks the prints to ensure optimum quality. A nearby camera club also has many 120 users, and shoots mostly film, bringing more trade to the shop.

Foto Finish has been a member of the FDIS group since 2004, when Marie took over the running of the photo centre from her father. The twenty-year-old business had belonged to another group of high street photo centres, but Marie decided against rejoining that one, and chose FDIS instead.

She tells us: “I chose FDIS for all the extra support and backing, merchandising and so on, that we hadn’t really got from the group. Fujifilm is one of the best known brands. Everybody knows it. My dad had problems with the previous group, and I just felt FDIS was more prominent in the market.”

She continues: “I met Peter Wigington, Fujifilm's business manager for the FDIS group, at the Focus on Imaging trade show. He visited us and went through everything about joining the group, and explained everything to us, in the store.”

Foto Finish has been a FDIS member for five years now. The FDIS signage for Foto Finish was renewed again earlier this year, as part of the group’s on-going program of brand maintenance.

Marie decided to upgrade Foto Finish to a dry minilab when the laser in her old wet lab failed. The manufacturer of her legacy equipment would have charged many thousands of pounds to replace the laser. This, added to running costs, meant the price of keeping the old machine was more than the cost of replacing it with a new modern dry lab.

Marie had her initial misgivings about the dry-process quickly dispelled. She says: “At first we weren’t 100% confident about deciding to go dry. You automatically think dry must mean no better than home-inkjet quality. But actually seeing the prints from the machines at Focus on Imaging changed our minds.”

Marie approached a number of manufacturers, including the one for her legacy equipment, and compared their proposals. She found the Fujifilm proposition the best one.

She says: “We knew from previous experience all the help we would get from Fujifilm, and all the support we would get afterwards, the after-sales service, marketing support and all the things you don’t really get from other manufacturers. We got quotes from Fujifilm and from our legacy supplier, and the Fujifilm quote was better. It included more within the package. The competing quote was based around taking some things out, and adding other things in, to get to a similar price. Even with that, it was still higher than the Fujifilm quote.”

Marie bought the Fujifilm Frontier DL410 Dry Minilab in May 2009. Installation was relatively easy. To get the machine put in as soon as possible, Marie dispensed with the usual site survey, and scheduled a couple of closed days, for installation and on-site training.

She says: “Because of not having the site survey, we hadn’t decided where the Frontier DL410 was going to go before it arrived. Our premises are really very small. When the DL410 arrived, its boxes filled the shop from front to back, so you couldn’t move. But when Fujifilm unpacked it, and we got rid of all the packaging, it was tiny, and very easy to move around. It uses standard domestic power, so it was easy to sort out some wiring to plug it in to. It comes with a table included in the package, so it goes on top of that, and spare media is stored underneath, in a nice big air-tight container. That comes with it as well. So it was really a good deal.”

Marie says: “We’ve had a few customers actually remark upon the quality of the prints that come off the Frontier Dry Minilab since we’ve had it. They really like it, they think it’s a lot better. They say the prints are a lot sharper and crisper. My own opinion is, I think it’s excellent - definitely a lot sharper.”

Foto Finish also installed three new Fujifilm SmartPix photo kiosks to integrate with the Frontier Dry Minilab. Marie Mears tells us: “Our customers find the user interface on the Fujifilm SmartPix kiosks a lot more user friendly than on the ones we had before. They can do a lot more things on them as well. We do tend to get more orders now because of this, but I think the main business benefit is just that our customers are a lot happier with them.”

Foto Finish and FDIS timed a promotional re-launch day for the store to coincide with the Tour of Britain cycle race passing through Chard on Friday the 18th of September, 2009.

Peter Wigington, Fujifilm's business manager for the FDIS group, attended the re-launch, with the Fujifilm costume character, FinePix Fred. He presented a bottle of champagne to Marie and her staff, Julie and Ashley, to celebrate the official launch of the new Dry Minilab.

The Mayor of Chard, Councillor Jill Shortland, happened to pass by, in full regalia, and stopped for a chat with Marie and FinePix Fred. The Chard Town Cryer, Stuart Cumming, also popped in, in full ceremonial dress, rang his bell and did some cries for the occasion, and the local press photographer captured it all for the paper.

Foto Finish invited customers to come and meet the staff on the day. They explained the new Fujifilm services the photo centre can now offer, and answered customers’ questions about them. There were special offers too, including a "Who's the Baby" competition for a canvas print, and a charity lucky dip, for vouchers giving 15% off selected items.

As the Tour of Britain cyclists whizzed through Chard on the street outside the shop, Marie, her Foto Finish staff, Peter Wigington and FinePix Fred all went out to cheer them on.

Peter Wigington said: “ It is a real pleasure to support such motivated photo retailers as Maria and her team. It is after all what FDIS is all about.“

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
Tel. 01323 749400
Contact: Peter Brandon
Email: peter@wpsmedia.co.uk