Photo Development Business

[bonviveur]

Are any you guys have or know anyone who have experience in runing a photoshop in Thailand?

I would like to open a 1 hour (digital) photo shop somewhere in Thailand, I don't know if there is a market for this business or is it too expensive for most Thais.

any comments are welcome.

[Khun Jean]

I have seen many shops like this. In bangkok a lot, on samui a few.

I make a lot of digital pictures and have my own printer that has a good quality (canoni9100) but i print most of my pictures at one of those shop because the price of 4 baht per picture (sometimes 3 baht) for a 4x6 is unbeatable. Although this is not always a one hour service it looks like it is the most used one. I don't know about the profit you can make on that but i think it is very little.

On the bigger prints there is still a profit margin but i don't think the market is big enough and again lots of competition. Maybe with value added like framing or put digital pictures on t-shirt, caps, clocks might add some profit.

[bonviveur]

Thank you Khun Jean.

Bonviveur

[Ijustwannateach]

There's no way you'll manage to compete with the regular Thai shops at the low-end and middle end of the market- at best, you'd be investing in a Thai-run business (and unless you have some special reason to trust your Thai partner, that will end in tears).

However, there is a bit of room at the UPPER end of the market- i.e., for people who want things done correctly, well, and with a bit of care, with the top quality equipment and chemicals- and don't mind paying extra for it. A friend of mine who is a semi-professional photographer is always grumbling about the dearth of places who can simply develop his film in a decent way. A warning, though- the place he found most acceptable and had been using for a year or so suddenly went out of business recently. There are some signs that digital photography is destroying the film consumer base.

Good luck, whatever happens.

"Steven"

[bonviveur]

Thank you for the Input Ijustwannateach, maybe I should start looking at opening a convenience store with a digital kiosque, I guess digital is the way to go now.

Bonviveur