ALTHOUGH the spreading popularity of digital photography has pushed the business of many print photo shops into the doldrums, one home-grown company has not only bucked the trend but is seeing business growth.

FotoHub is in fact looking at more than doubling its business to $10 million within a few years from the $4 million turnover it recorded last financial year. For the current year, ending March 2007, the target is to realise $6 million in revenue.

A 50 per cent increase in sales over 12 months would be the envy of any business, big or small, in Singapore or anywhere in the world, but FotoHub is quite confident of achieving it.

"Those who say that photo shops are a sunset business are wrong," says Mr Vincent Tan, group chief executive officer of FotoHub, which is among Singapore's more than 100,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

"Any business can turn into a sunset business in this fast changing world. In our case, we always try to think ahead to explore potential new areas of growing our business," the 43-year-old enterpreneur told AsiaOne in an interview.

Photos/ JOEL BOH

Giving a boost to FotoHub's growth plans is its latest innovation, the FotoBook which allows customers to put together their own photo book choosing prints of different sizes and adding text. Thus users can tell a story with the help of photos and words.

"The FotoBook is available in different sizes and has imported covers made of different materials to suit customer's budget," said Mr Tan.

"While the FotoBook is catching on among young couples to record the birth of their child, it is also a popular way to record overseas holidays, anniversaries and other happy moments," he added.

Mr Tan said the ability to add one's own words to tell a story by inputting own text using Adobe photoshop software, was a big draw. Another big plus is its attractive pricing, said Mr Tan. The cost ranges from around $55 for a 6 inches x 6 inches FotoBook, to anything between $200 and $800, for a 12 inches x 15 inches FotoBook depending on the cover chosen.

Introducing new products and services has been the name of the game for Mr Tan and his four other partners ever since they founded the business nearly 20 years ago.

In 1993, he ventured into digital imaging and introduced the Photo CD concept to individual customers in association with Kodak. But it never took off and the company nearly folded.

But showing the true Singaporean spirit of enterprise, Mr Tan decided to change track about 10 years ago and this time went for corporate clients offering them the then new technology of digital imaging.

FotoHub offered companies the service of converting film-based materials into digital format. Gradually it clinched one big corporate project after another, including the digitising of the National Archives of Singapore's collection of negatives and photographs into digital content.

Learning from his earlier experiences, Mr Tan knew he could not rest on his laurels.

"I started asking, what will happen after the projects in hand come to an end? Where will we be headed?" And so he started looking for new technology to import to Singapore.

After sourcing around in Europe, FotoHub invested $100,000 in 2000 to buy a machine which enabled the company to digitise heritage materials. This process involved the scanning of images from large bulky or fragile items such as old books for conversion into digital format. Leveraging on this new technology, the company was able to add new important clients like the National Library Board (NLB).

After doing a pilot project covering about 30,000 pages of 200 books, FotoHub won a big tender to digitise some half a million of pages for the NLB.

Now FotoHub counts among its key customers important bodies like the Economic Development Board and the Maritime Port Authority.

The company also offers large format printing services for companies that need large displays of publicity materials and posters.

Looking ahead, FotoHub plans to introduce more value-added services and products such as fabric imaging. In addition, with help from Spring Singapore, FotoHub also intends to expand its customer reach through a hub-satellite concept, which will see the company opening about three to four satellite stores within a four-kilometre radius of its current retail outlets which act as hubs.

Each satellite store will be manned by just one retail assistant and will be half the size of a 200 sq ft to 300 sq ft full scale outlet.

The outlets will have kiosks that will allow customers to transfer images from their digital camera that they wish to have printed and make orders as well as sample new products and services. But the new mini-outlets will not have a photo processor; all photo processing will be done at the hubs.

Because of cost savings in terms of labour, rental and equipment, setting up one satellite store will cost only about half of the $150,000 to $200,000 normally involved in setting up a full-scale outlet, says Mr Tan. The first few satellite stores are expected to open in the new year.

"This hub-satellite concept is easily scalable because the outlay for the satellites is lower. This will give us the opportunity to move out of Singapore," says Mr Tan, adding that FotoHub is thinking of venturing into markets like Malaysia, Indonesia and even the Middle East in the future.

Despite the success he enjoys today, Mr Tan has never forgotten his humble start to the business. He was among five kampong boys who turned photography, their childhood hobby, into an enterprise by setting up a photo-processing outlet in Coronation Plaza in 1987.

FotoHub is proof that with passion and hard work, an idea can be turned into a successful and thriving business.

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