The Framers Forum

Went down yesterday to this show with my wife Jill, she does most of the photography & printing.
What a great show lots of bargains on papers, especially on the Ilford stand.
Picked up a couple of nice camera carrying harnesses too,
It was also good to see Steve from Hot Press there with some great bargains & a new Product,
also the lads from Wessex & DJ Simons,
DIY Framing & FrameCo seemed to be doing good business on the hobby & small scale side of things.
Lots of great seminars, too many to take in on one day really, so i think 2 days next year is on the books.
All in all a great show & well worth a visit..

Ps
Register for free entry but theres an £8.00 Parking Fee.

the market is there too

spring fair gets approx 65K visitors for whole show, 20 halls


focus on imaging gets 36k in 2 halls for less time!!!!

Great service from Hot Press too, Ordered from Steve at 4pm yesterday arrived this morning at 10am

Great Show - saw lots of forum members - probably more than at ISF actually - pro active framers see the need to see what the trends are in this major picture market - too many too mention here - Ricky / Stcstc / JGF / Canvas Chris etc - so without starting another fight...

I didn't see any visitors fom FATG HQ or the "the elite" of the guild - c'mon guys - where were you???

Did I miss you??? - where you at another show??? - where you avoiding the stand that "is fraught with danger"???

For the record - I have paid my fees & I love the guild (doing yet another talk for members next week) - soooooooooo....

Whats the score in the lucrative photo market???

FATG supplier members attending included - Hot Press / Simons / ARRGGHqadia / Wessex / Fuji / Framers Corner / Lion /Permajet / Fotospeed / Gunnar / & many more....

Please say something...

S O M E T H I N G

Always do exactly as told

There are some companies servicing the photo market which we smaller framers can't compete with in many ways.

One of my photographers went to the show at Hammersmith (forget the organisers) and ordered a few frames from one of the suppliers. They were all individually presented in custom made boxes ready for presentation to the customer. The brochure looked really slick as well.

Disadvantage to my customer is that he has to choose from a set range where as I can do custom designs on my CMC but it is getting harder for me.

I came to see you Steve!

But you were busy with REAL customers, so never got a chance to talk to you. . . . . .

I agree Jonny, I gave up concentrating on the photgraphy market a few years ago. I had a website and range which price matched Ultimat, I even had a photography wholeseller involved but we couldn't make a dent into it. I realised that my margins were compromised and it wasn't worth the bother any more. There are other sectors of our industry which are a lot more profitable and less hard work than the photographic market.

So why is Focus such a good show, why hasn't it suffered the same as spring fair? Especially considering high street photography has been very hard hit by the recession.

Should there be a framing show there as well, kill two birds with one stone?

I went a few years ago and it was absolutely jam packed on the Sunday, but photographer friends told me that this is when the amateur brigade turn up, which probably accounts for a lot of the footfall.

Yes, it is the amateur/semi pro's that make the numbers up at Focus. I belong to the local camera club and there was a couple of car loads of them going.

Trouble is they only need to present a business card and they get the literature including a trade price list.

Gesso&Bole wrote:I came to see you Steve!

But you were busy with REAL customers, so never got a chance to talk to you. . . . . .

Jim - Sorry I missed you mate - your are on one or two of the FATG committes aren't you???
Do you know if anyone else came form Guild HQ???

Jonny2morsos wrote:
Trouble is they only need to present a business card and they get the literature including a trade price list.

Yes that is a problem. I have had this discussion with one of our suppliers present at the show and they say that minimum order on sales usually prevents the general public buying direct, however it wouldn't take much organising for a camera club to club together to make up a carriage paid order of photo frames or mounts.

I do think that this does open up a can of worms regarding our suppliers potentially going direct to our customers Pro and amateur photographers at trade prices. It is also happening in my main market, the leisure industry with one of my suppliers buying a contract framing business and going into supplying hotels and health clubs etc.

i dont do bad out of the photo market at all

in fact 95% of my business is photographers

You have the advantage of being a printer as well so you are a one stop shop which I think is the way forward for this sector of the market.

Graysalchemy wrote: ....it wouldn't take much organising for a camera club to club together to make up a carriage paid order of photo frames or mounts.

If they can buy direct at trade prices even paying carriage probably won't bother them as they will still be ahead compared with retal prices.

It doesn't do our industry any favours and it incenses me to see our suppliers at such events.

Graysalchemy wrote:
Yes that is a problem. I have had this discussion with one of our suppliers present at the show and they say that minimum order on sales usually prevents the general public buying direct, however it wouldn't take much organising for a camera club to club together to make up a carriage paid order of photo frames or mounts.

I have supplied a local Photo/camera club member in the past, he then rings me for a quote for 50x40cm blank mount card so the members can cut thier own mounts, gave him a price, he says he can get it cheaper from Lion, I tell hime to get it from Lion as I can't get it any cheaper.

Yes, Lion do pre cut blanks of mount board 500 x 400 Colourmount white core at £9.78 +VAT for a pack of 10.

Does not give a lot of scope for profit to do your self unless you are getting an exceptional price from your supplier.

Our local camera club have an enterprising new chairman and now have trade accounts with several trade suppliers after a club trip to Focus this week.

Although this won't break me, I am irritated that anyone can buy from Lion for the same price as me if they spend 30 quid + vat

One idea to counter act this may be to start our own buying group. I put this to the FATG many years ago but they're so tied up with trade suppliers it was never going to be considered. There will be items of hardware that we all use day in day out.With some volume we could negotiate with manufactures to get much better prices. This would only work though with framers who could take a whole case of tapes (48 off for 38mm) but instead of paying 2.59 for a roll of Eco25 tape 38mm from Lion you would pay 1.25 a roll This would also work with framers using larger quantities of fixings.

Anyone interested?

The Secretary of our camera club is a pro photograher so does have access to trade suppliers and has supplied many of the members in the past.

Once a year I invite the club along and demonstrate mount cutting both on a Keencut Ultimat Gold and on my Valiani CMC. I do get a pretty good deal from my wholesaler for his own brand mountboard which is actually Daler white core but in a limited range of colours so offer board by the sheet or cut to 40 x 50 cm pieces. I will do mountcutting for them and will mount the photo and put a back board on so the print is competition ready.

When they come I give out some corner samples and a price list refelecting the different level of service I offer.

Not big bucks but worth the effort.

Framerpicture wrote:One idea to counter act this may be to start our own buying group. I put this to the FATG many years ago but they're so tied up with trade suppliers it was never going to be considered. There will be items of hardware that we all use day in day out.With some volume we could negotiate with manufactures to get much better prices. This would only work though with framers who could take a whole case of tapes (48 off for 38mm) but instead of paying 2.59 for a roll of Eco25 tape 38mm from Lion you would pay 1.25 a roll This would also work with framers using larger quantities of fixings.

Anyone interested?

Yes you have said to me you have reduced you spend by buying else where. I would be in