FUJIFILM INSPIRES A BIGGER PLACE & BIGGER PLANS

FUJIFILM BOOSTS RETAILER WITH THE ‘WIGHT’ STUFF BPI News catches up with Island Photo Centre owner Steve Brown, to discover how Fujifilm’s continuing support and product line up has helped an established business on the Isle of Wight to grow even bigger…

When we last spoke to Island Photo Centre, former Fujifilm ‘Shop of the Year’, some 12 months back, the talk was all of pop-up portrait studios and photo workshops – both suggested as great ideas for expanding your customer base and driving sales of prints and photo processing products.

While that’s still the case when we reestablish contact in 2020, there have been some big changes for the business – not least a move to new, larger premises. Plus the awards keep on coming, with owners Steve and Amanda Brown telling us that they’ve been named ‘Independent Retailer of the Year’ by the local Isle of Wight radio station.

The bigger premises in Ryde are a stone’s throw from their old store – their second shop in Newport, which was already larger, has stayed the same. The move was prompted by a need to essentially do more of what they do well, plus pursue further clever ideas for business generation. Since they took on the new premises last October, it’s been all hands to the pumps, putting in a new contemporary looking wood floor and establishing a balance between the vintage fittings and the latest high tech hardware.

“It’s a lovely old Victorian building with a big skylight, so it has a lot of character and a wow factor,” marvels Steve Brown. “The old shop didn’t have enough room for all we’re doing now. Fortunately we’ve now got a back room that is five metres square, for use as a studio. We’ve also got a large full height cellar which is divided up into eight rooms which we’re using for photo gifting, mounting pictures and doing all the other bits that we want to do.”

Island Photo Centre Ryde’s first day of business last November saw exclusive deals offered, plus the likes of Fujifilm and its business partner Swains in attendance. “Fujifilm and Swains played a big part in a successful opening,” Steve acknowledges. “We had a trainer from Fujifilm come down and they’ve also paid

for one of our display cabinets. Luckily we were able to use the existing black Fujifilm sign from our old shop on the new one, with a bit of adjustment.”

Because Steve and Amanda now have a bigger double-fronted shop, a lot more people are noticing them, and sales are on the up.

“Re-locating has definitely made an

Home grown success: Steve and Amanda Brown are constantly coming with innovative ideas to generate revenue for their business, which has allowed for the recent expansion of their premises, seen here

impact,” nods Steve. ‘Our processing and framing services have really taken off, now we can display them in a larger space. So a big part of what Fujifilm is doing is really paying off for us.”

While some retailers would view taking on a larger premises in the present climate as potentially risky, Steve disagrees: “I looked at it more like we were losing sales, because the old shop wasn’t big enough to show everything that we did. Now we can show it all, everything has taken off because of it.

“So now one of our windows is full of stock and the other window is services we offer. And a lot of people are reading our posters and banners and coming in and saying: ‘I didn’t realise you did that.”

The natural layout of the 150-year-old building housing the new store has also played to the Brown’s advantage. “There is lovely old shelving across half of the shop, which is ideal for displaying frames. And above that is a huge Victorian skylight four metres across, which we’ve painted in tones of grey for a more

Victorian splendour: Island Photo Centre’s re-location to a bright and airy store just down the road from their old shop in Ryde is giving its product offerings room to breathe, with a dedicated Fujifilm print section and lots of room for additional offerings such as an on-site studio

corporate look, accented with some black to reflect the Fujifilm signage at the front. That illuminates all of our photo processing services. The first six metres of the shop is hardware – mirrorless is where everything seems to be going – while the next six metres is processing. Then behind that is a door through to our studio, which is five metres square.”

A larger space also means that customers feel less intimidated about just popping in for a browse – inevitably

to dispense “some advice and pointers,” according to Steve, “returning as we were finishing up to give some advice on where we should put our displays and stands. We had a lot of discussions and input, took most of the ideas on board and it’s going well. We’ve been open 30 years but are still getting customers saying ‘Ooh, we didn’t know you were here’ because a lot of what we’re doing now is all new stuff. “We’ve also had some customers commenting: ‘I feel like I’m in a

Re-locating has definitely made an impact. Our processing and framing services have really taken off, now we can display them in a larger space. So a big part of what Fujifilm is doing is really paying off for us.” Island Photo Centre owner Steve Brown

seeing something they like in the process and buying on impulse.

The banners around the store’s photo finishing area are obviously Fujifilm branded – explaining the range of services on offer, including photo gifting. A bespoke desk has also been built to house Fujifilm DX100 printers, while, tying it all together, the store’s logo in black and red successfully matches Fujifilm’s own.

As regular readers will expect, Fujifilm’s Business Advisor Wendy Gray has been on hand as fittings have been put in place,

London shop’, which I put down to the corporate colours,” he adds. “The island has quite a few second home owners, so I hear that quite a lot.”

It all goes to show what a store facelift can achieve, but as you’d expect of Steve and his team, their proactivity stretches beyond merely establishing a new store.

“We’ve had bookings and sittings for the studio even though we haven’t really started advertising it. But it’s been seen, which is encouraging. The next stage is advertising, now we’re up and running. We’re also looking at developing other things like our camera club, which is a year old and has doubled in membership since we started. We’ve now got the space to hold meetings

in our studio and it’s become multi purpose. We’re thinking of doing some in-store days with the manufacturers and customers can make use of the studio to take some photographs which we can print straight away and they can really try out the kit before they buy.”

Naturally not many retailers have the luxury of the space to be able to offer up such extras – so Island Photo Centre has a real advantage here.

Looking forward, the business has been considering what it can do this year to earn more money and expand its customer base – which has meant branching out into schools photography. “We thought let’s do it and rang up all the schools – managing to get five on our books so far. We’ve started out with class photos and are moving on to single portraits. In October when we were fitting the new shop we also had 1,000 kids to photograph! Now we’ve been contracted for this year to go and do the same. Because of that, the parents have heard about us, and come in for child passport

photos. So now we’ve got a different age group of customers, which is the young mothers – and that just keeps growing. So the way to attract that audience is to go and do schools’ photography.”

Being on the Isle of Wight also offers the possibility of shooting annual and ongoing events, including the famous Cowes Week, for which the shop had a stand on the sea front. “We’ve even photographed an annual event of burlesque dancers on the Isle of Wight,” Steve adds, never missing an opportunity. “We got the job of photographing the groups, photographing the individuals

Radio stars: As a successful local business, Island Photo centre’s achievements have, in turn, been celebrated by the local community. One of its most recent awards was presented by the local radio station, as seen here

in to collect their prints and seeing them, which provokes an impulse buy. I’ve just bought all the photo gifting machinery, which has come via Swains, to do it ourselves and set that up in the cellar. We just have to finish setting up the printers and working on the price

and photographing them on stage. Plus we did a pop up studio for the audience as well, because usually people dress up at these events.”

Looking further into 2020, pandemic permitting, there are plans to cover a hot air balloon festival, an around-theisland race, as well as more photographic courses, more schools photography, and a workshop with people with disabilities in Robin Hill Country Park.

‘Bear’ essentials: Like any retailer worth their salt, Island Photo Centre takes advantage of the changing seasons for seasonal promotions, such as a pop-up studio for Christmas that will result in shots perfectly suited to photo gifts, while it also shoots at many regular events on the island

Events and ensuing print opportunities aside, when asked which products are doing well for the business, Steve replies it’s processing at all different sizes, right across the board. “We’ve got 44-inch printers, so I’ve done a couple of 5ft wide prints for people. Plus sales of frames are just going crazy really. We’re ordering more frames than we’ve ever ordered before. And that’s down to increased visibility – people coming

list. So hopefully that will take off too.”

Given the success of Island Photo Centre so far, in pitting itself against the prevailing economic winds, we certainly wouldn’t want to bet against it.

To learn more about how Fujifilm Print Services can help advise, inspire and improve your own business and turnover, get in touch with Marketing Manager Gloria McCann now on 01234 572138 and visit www.fujifilmphotoservices.co.uk

STOP PRESS: FUJIFILM LIFELINE TO DEALERS DURING PANDEMIC: Steve Brown tells us Fujifilm has been in touch with advice on looking after your dry lab during these strange times, and will not be raising invoices for any kiosks or membership fees for April or May. Equipment agreements and installment payments have also been frozen for two months with immediate effect. Steve adds: “I’m sure such help will be gratefully received by us all in these difficult times.”