British Photographic Industry News – February-March 2020
English | 32 pages | pdf | 52.81 MB
With the bitter winter cold increasingly punctuated by spring-like sunshine, the photo trade is stirring back into life to coincide with the first crop of crocuses. A quiet January – apart from a couple of early doors announcements from Canon and Nikon (see ‘News’) – only really got going with The Societies Convention at the month’s end, providing our first real chance to catch up with industry contacts. Apart from, that is, wellattended farewell drinks for Tony Stent, now retired director of Cameraworld. Yes, the changing of the season this year has brought with it a changing of the guard; with many well-established names from when we first entered the industry hanging up their holsters. We saw Sigma’s Graham Armitage and Fuji’s Peter Wilkinson retire last year, and Nikon’s Jeremy Gilbert and Fuji’s Adrian Clarke are also leaving us this March – all ‘big beasts’ of the UK trade with at least 30 to 40 years’ service each under their belts.
Still, a heck of a lot has changed about the photo industry since the 1980s boom years and spring is a time for replenishment and renewal. Many of us will get the first chance to witness what’s new en mass at The Photography Show in Birmingham this March – with this issue acting as our show preview edition – and get a more international flavour at Photokina, scheduled for May. Thankfully it looks like there will be shed-loads of interesting gear on show, as, aside from leaks via the various online rumour sites, we have first actual sight of new cameras from Fujifilm and Olympus this month, as well as plentiful options for photo frames, albums, camera bags, tripods and other hardware accessories on which there is typically a better margin for retailers.
Speaking of camera shops, that sector of our industry most hit by crippling business rates, the erosion of the high street and
competition via the web, help is at hand via our regular business feature in this edition. We’ve long suggested that a multi channel approach to retail was better than having all your eggs in one virtual basket and a new report from industry watchers Futuresource agrees. You can find out more about the latest findings – as well as how to get maximum return on exhibiting at or visiting a trade show – on page 28. In the meantime, see you at The
Photography Show and don’t forget to vote in the annual BPI News Trade Awards. Turn to page 24 now for how to do that!
Editorial form –
Gavin Stoker,
[email protected]
@GavinStoker
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