"Grahame Class Photography"

A review of Olan Mills by Grahame written on Wednesday 20th of December 2006

To all ex employees of Olan Mills.

I have now been very fortunate to communicate with many of you regarding the possibility of helping out. I have sent out press releases across the country. To explain the industry view and try to contact as many people as possible.

We have contacted the administrators whom I know most of you dont like and their response is there is little to salvage but they did say the greatest asset was the people and suggested we try to recruit some of you.

Although we are a small busines relatively we are expanding in a similar market to yours. Although we have identified the need for commited people and we are helping them build their own business with the ifra structure and back office support of a large company.

Speaking to many of you we now know there are some very talented people out there. Our opportunity is for those of you who want to build a businness based on a tried and tested model. We are looking for partners accross the UK who can with our help start their own business.

This will not suit everyone but for some of you this could be an opportunity to use your skills in a market you love. I need peopl;e who can convince me that we can work together.

In the first instance please send me an E mail include a short CV I will then send you more details. I only want good people who have drive and determination. You and us will be investing in your future so the personality has to be right.

If you have what it takes to build a successfull business in what is still an exciting industry please get in touch.

To those who I have already spoken with I hope to meet up with some of you in the new year.

At the botom of this posting I have pasted the press release just so you can see it. But unfortunately they media are not very interested I have only had one response and they just wanted to here bad things. Thats typical unfortunately.

If you are not interested perhaps your colleagues are so please pass this message on.

I would like to wish all of you best wishes for the future and I hope you still have a wonderfull Xmas and a happy New Year. Good Luck!!

Here is the press release we have nothing to do with the administrators but we had to include their info in the release.

Class Photography Ltd is an established photography business founded in 1988. And its management team has decades of experience within the industry.

Commentining on the massive job losses and colapse of a major force in the photographic industry Olan Mills, Class Photography’s Directors stated the following.

PRESS RELEASE

19th December 2006

The demise of the Olan Mills photographic studio business after 25 years in the UK left a thousand staff sacked by a recorded phone message. Olan Mills, based in Wellingborough, Northants, opened its first studio in 1981 and was bought by Piper Private Equity in 2004 for £10million. It lost £550,000 last year on top of debts of almost £2million.- Administrators KPMG, called in on Thursday 14th December 2006 said: "A recorded message was the quickest way to inform staff."

Many factors have lead to the collapse of this once highly successful business; these include its management and the reliance on high pressure sales tactics but also major changes in photographic technology and the expectations of today’s customers. These changes effect all photographers and demand that they adapt or perish. Modern digital cameras are both low cost and capable of producing results that just a few years ago required expensive equipment and professional skills. Photographs are more often viewed on PCs than printed and customers are no longer willing to wait until they have forgotten what they photographed before seeing the results. ‘Hardware’ products are no longer just prints but a wide range of photo-gifts such as framed canvases, mousemats, mugs or jigsaws.

Professional photographers are having to learn new ways to use their skills and provide more than their customers can get from DIY. They need to focus more on customer service than the science of photography and to work faster and more efficiently. It is becoming much more difficult for the one-man photographer to earn a living because he now needs ‘back-office’ support and production tools that few can afford.

Geoff Craddock, MD of Class Photography, says ‘our solution is to centralise production and equip local, franchised, photographers with the means to automate much of their workflow and use broadband technology to give our photographers the benefit of running their own business but with the same facilities, including secure web galleries, as the big nationals.’ The difference is that each business does not carry the burden of large overhead costs and can concentrate on looking after the customers. Grahame Hoskins, Franchise and Marketing Director, says ‘Any ex-Olan Mills staff who want to use their experience in their own business should look at how franchising can allow them to avoid the problems of big, national, companies.’

For further information:

Geoff Craddock, Managing Director, Class Photography Ltd.

Tel: 08707 202963 or 07774 243770

Grahame Hoskins, Franchise and Marketing Director, Class Photography Ltd.

Tel: 01752 296844 or 07749 435690

Joint Administrators of Olan Mills Holdings Ltd and Olan Mills Ltd.

Richard Philpott and Myles Halley both of KPMG LLP, 2 Cornwall Street, Birmingham, B3 2DL Tel: 0121 232 3000

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