Johannesburg, 26 Nov 2009
HP has started rolling out photo centres in retail stores across the country, with plans to drive its digital printing strategy.
It was revealed during a media briefing at Midsouth Distributors in Midrand that HP photo centres have been opened in Livingstone, George and Umtata, with plans to expand into Gauteng. Shoprite Checkers has already signed on.
Alvaro van der Eijk, HP Retail Publishing Solutions market manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa, says: “People love to create, and the new printing products give people more options in publishing prints, photo books, calendars and posters.”
Eijk says consumers' printing behaviour has changed, and that printing is gaining popularity all over the world, despite SA currently lagging behind Europe regarding this trend.
“It will grow at an increasing rate as more digital photography users discover exciting new ways to share their images and interact with the technology. Retail will be the most important channel for our customers. We've already seen our worldwide sales increase by 50%,” notes Eijk.
Positive outlook
Adriaan Vosloo, MD of Midsouth Distributors, an official reseller of HP products, expects the South African printing market to follow European trends, with printing becoming more popular within the next year. “The local market is looking very positive and we expect that the photo centres will do well in SA,” says Vosloo.
Users will be able to plug their USB flash drive, CD/DVD or Micro SD cards into the printing stations within retail stores and select, create and preview the products they would like to print.
HP photo centres will have an extensive base of images, which customers can use to enhance their digital photographs or photo books. According to HP, users will only need to wait a few minutes for their prints.
Minilab release
HP also unveiled the Photosmart ML1000D Minilab printer; the first dry inkjet minilab that produces traditional single-sided photo prints, as well as duplex photo book pages and calendars. It prints up to 1 500 prints per hour.
According to HP, the minilab increases retailers operating efficiency and slashes energy consumption and hazardous chemicals while lowering labour costs.
HP's revenue in the retail photo finishing market reached $156 million in 2008. Earlier this year, HP decided to change its branding from the 2007 HP Retail Photo Solutions to HP Retail Publishing Solutions. It made this change in order to keep up with new technologies and social media trends.
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