The FINANCIAL — “There is a reduced printing number of digital photos in Georgia at the moment,” says photo professional Mikhail Chokhonelidze. “Storing digital photos on personal computers has become very common and as a result most people do not print them.” However those who love high quality photos always refer to professional printing, experts say. The FINANCIAL investigated how photo printing centres are surviving in the digital world of today.
The Georgian photo market is represented by two main photo players: Photo World and Photo Centre. Both companies have a net of shops and both of them are official distributors of leading photo brands: Photo Centre distributes Konica products while Photo World distributes Kodak products. The printing price is the same in both companies’ shops.
Photo World opened its 9th shop in the store Goodwill last week. The company has invested GEL 90 thousand in total in the expansion of its shop net. According to company representatives they plan to distribute new coloured printers, scanners and digital picture frames from April, 2008.
According to Mikhail Chokhonelidze, Photo World, the cost of printing the smallest size photo from tape is 25 tetri, from a digital photo camera – 30 tetri and mobile phone – 40 tetri.
According to George Tsintsadze, the director of Photo Centre, the company unites 15 shops under the Photo Centre trade mark. Six of the shops belong to the company itself, the rest of them work with a franchising system.
“Those nine shops use the Photo Centre name, management, and promotional campaign. But those shops are not the property of the company. Photo shops are situated throughout Georgia: in Kutaisi, Rustavi, and Poti.
“It is true that the market is represented by two companies with extended nets of photo services, but the market is also represented by several small shops which serve their clients very successfully. These small shops must surely have their loyal customers as well. The figure of individual shops is far greater than the number of Photo Centre and Photo World’s shops,” Mikhail Chokhonelidze declared to The FINANCIAL.
“The situation was very different three years ago. The entrance of digital systems has changed the market situation considerably, as companies which were not strong enough financially were not able to reequip their shops, and therefore such small businesses likely went under. The equipping of a new shop with modern apparatus costs USD 30 000-50 000. The opening of a new shop costs USD 50 000. As a result many shops shut down. According to old researches, when the photo business was more active, the total number of photo shops in Georgia was 150,” George Tsintsadze said.
According to Chokhonelidze, Photo World’s net consists of 9 shops. The last one was opened this previous week on February 16, 2008. The shop is situated in the hypermarket Goodwill.
“The place was chosen carefully. It is world practice that photo shops are very convenient for customers shopping at hypermarkets. While they are purchasing products in the market, photos will be printed. So the clients do not lose any additional time for printing. Opening a new shop at the hypermarket will supposedly be a profitable step for the company,” Chokhonelidze added.
According to Tsintsadze, Photo Centre’s real competitor on the market is Photo World. The other shops cannot really be regarded as rivals.
“They do not have the same circulation figure, they are not able to use new technologies in equipping their studios as their budget is small and they are small themselves. Photo Centre had GEL 1 100 000 circulation in the previous year. Profit grew by 35% compared to 2006,” Tsintsadze said.
“The exact figure of market occupation is not known for Photo World. It is changeable. Small shops perhaps have less circulation than Photo World, but small shops also create a favourable marketing climate,” Chokhonelidze says. “The annual circulation of Photo World was GEL 1 900 000. Profit of the company grew by 15% in 2007 compared to 2006.”
“Printing from tape has minimal use in Tbilisi. Approximately 10% of the population uses this old method. The remaining 90% is occupied by printing from digital photo-cameras and mobile phones. Actually the digital technique has reduced printing indexes, as the digital system appears to have lost the intrigue which old photo cameras had. A user of digital apparatus has the ability to see everything in the given moment. Also people often just store photos on their personal computers and not print them. However a printed photo has its advantages, which are never lost,” Tsintsadze says.
“There is a reduced printing number from digital systems, as keeping photos in personal computers has become very common and as a result most people do not print them. But on the other hand, there are those who prize high quality products and such clients always refer to professional printing. What’s more the technologies of printing are far more refined today than they used to be. The company has special assistants and designers who professionally help customers in improving the quality of their photographs,” Chokhonelidze said.
“The most part of the printing segment is occupied by digital systems, only 20% is occupied by printing from tape. Tape has not gone out of fashion, as a lot of professional photographers still use tapes,” Chokhonelidze declared.
“10% of printing is occupied by mobile phone cameras. The quality is reduced but customers do not have complaints about this,” Chokhonelidze says.
Daily Photo World serves 100-150 customers.
“The number is reduced at weekends, as the shop is not oriented on local inhabitants of the district. So shops which are situated in the suburbs have more customers at weekends, as they are oriented more on the local residents of the area,” Chokhonelidze added.
“Photo Centre always has novelties in the service aspect. One of them is on-line services. The companies give the opportunity of free-of-charge loading of photos on a hosting from a local computer of the user and print them for the same fares. Additional fares must be paid in the case where a customer wants their photos to be distributed to a home address. The price of distribution is GEL 5 for the city and GEL 10 for the regions. The company TNT helps Photo Centre in distributing,” Tsintsadze declared.
“Long known for its wide range of photographic film products, Kodak is focused on two major markets: digital photography, and digital printing. The cost of products and services range from GEL 199-1 200. Kodak does not have professional photo cameras. It only has semi-professional ones. Kodak’s policy is to sell a high quality brand for a reduced price than its rivals,” Chokhonelidze said.
“Photo Centre plans to open additional shops in April. The company’s strategy is to occupy an area in the centre of Tbilisi. In the case of finding a suitable place, the company never refuses the opening of additional shops. The six shops which belong to Photo Centre are situated in the centre of Tbilisi: Vake, Saburtalo, Freedom Sq and Agmashenebeli Av. The company also has its partners in the suburbs of Tbilisi: Mukhiani, Varketili,” Tsintsadze declared.
“The company has two trading labels: Photo Centre and Zoomer. Zoomer is a mark which defines that the company trades with mobile phones as well. All leading mobile phone brands are distributed in the Photo Centre’s shop net,” Tsintsadze added.
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