KIS Photo-Me Group Emphasizes Creativity-at-Retail at PMA Las Vegas

My Creativ’ Corner, Innovative Tools Highlight Company’s Announcements, Exhibits

LAS VEGAS, 8 March 2007 – Building on a strategy for growth that was evident last fall at photokina, KIS Photo-Me Group today said it comes to PMA this year with an even sharper focus on demonstrating to photo retailers the tools and expertise that will help them significantly expand the creative range of digital photo products they can offer to increasingly demanding consumers.
The company’s innovative new imaging products and exhibits – on display in PMA Booth C232 – include a large-screen walk-up photo kiosk that lets consumers easily and immediately turn their snapshots into a variety of photo keepsakes; a versatile, high-speed, self-service “dry lab;” and numerous creative photo product samples to stimulate ideas for creating exciting photo products consumers say they want. Also on display is the PhotoBookPro universal photo book/photo keepsake system, a big hit at photokina last fall and the centerpiece of the KIS Photo-Me Group booth at PMA.
“We entered 2007 with a revitalized team around the world, including an outstanding network of distributors who understand their local markets and customers better than we do,” said Thierry Villard, President of KIS Photo-Me Group and Chief Operating Officer of the company’s Manufacturing Division. “We have a well-developed global vision of delivering simple, reliable, economical production tools to photo retailers that will enable them to transition from simple print providers to dynamic producers of a wide range of creative, high-margin photo products that delight consumers and generate new revenues.”
KIS Photo-Me Group also is displaying two highly regarded “Generation 3” digital minilabs – the DKS 1710 and DKS 1610 minilabs. Villard said PMA attendees can see his company’s most innovative products working together in the booth’s Creativ’ Corner retail simulation for flexible, integrated solutions suitable for various photo retail models.
Also in the booth: Five “cubes” group creative photo products under specific themes – wedding, travel, family, babies-children, and new markets – to show how KIS Photo-Me Group’s photo retail tools open up infinite possibilities for photo products that can strengthen retailers’ relationships with consumers while generating new revenues from these higher-margin offerings, Villard said.
New Products
KIS Photo-Me Group is introducing the Digital Automatic Minilab, a versatile “dry lab” with a productive Pro Pack option that produces standard thermal prints from 3.5x5 to 10x12 inches, as well as a variety of customized photo consumer photo products such as greeting cards, calendars and post cards that consumers today demand.
Besides a versatile memory card reader, an on-board flatbed scanner allows consumers to digitize and enhance existing pictures/art work, and its self-payment options enable 24/7 self-service operation, KIS Photo-Me Group said. Designed mainly for drugstores, supermarkets and convenience stores, the Digital Automatic Minilab is available in both two- and four-printer (Speedlab Pro Pack) configurations with production speeds as fast as 2.5 seconds per 4x6-inch print.
Also, the company is exhibiting its new Swifti compact walk-up photo imaging kiosk, which instantly transforms snapshots into added-value photo keepsakes. The Swifti can be located virtually anywhere – at hotels, campgrounds, tourist attractions, college campuses, etc. – as an additional revenue generator for retailers. In addition to immediately turning digital images into keepsakes, it burns image files to a CD to free up the user’s camera memory for more picture taking, KIS/Photo-Me Group said.
Villard said the growing diversity of KIS Photo-Me Group’s product portfolio is aimed at providing retailers with simple, effective tools that help them capitalize on the expanding possibilities of digital imaging, tapping into the unlimited opportunities for developing new products beyond simple prints and creating new income streams. “With the recent additions to our creative production tool portfolio, KIS Photo-Me Group can make a strong case that it is the leading on-site solutions provider to photo retailers. We’re at PMA this year to demonstrate this to the industry.”
Popular DKS Minilabs
The versatile DKS 1710 minilab produces a wide range of creative photo products up to 12x18 inches and up to 2,000 4x6-inch prints per hour at 350-dpi resolution – all from a remarkably small footprint. The more economical DKS 1610 minilab offers the same productivity for photo products up to 8x12 inches. Higher-capacity digital minilabs are available in both the DKS 17 and DKS 16 Series for high-traffic retail locations.
Both DKS lines feature the company’s proprietary MSB HD exposure system for exceptional image quality, an easy-to-use operator interface, Quick Load paper apparatus to minimize downtime, and a “hub and spoke” architecture that allows these printers to be networked with multiple self-serve kiosks to optimize productivity and revenues.
DKS 17 and DKS 16 Series models take up less than one square meter of floor space, and all connect to the company’s remarkable PhotoBookPro photo book / calendar maker. All of the background themes, layout templates, text and graphic treatments, and other digital embellishments for making enticing, creative photo products are included in the My Creativ’ Album software installed on all KIS Photo-Me Group printers.
PhotoBookPro automatically scores, joins, folds and binds up to 40 picture pages into quality photo albums up to 12x18 inches, with hard or soft covers. It also can produce a variety of greeting cards, calendars and other picture-based keepsakes. Besides using output from KIS Photo-Me Group printers, PhotoBookPro accepts paper output from other printers. It can even mix output from different sources for creating scrapbooks and other innovative products.
The Right Strategy
In response to the changing needs of photo retailers worldwide, KIS Photo-Me Group not only developed for producing creative, high-margin photo products. It has revised its marketing and sales structure to offer more and better “hands-on” support to its customers, Villard said.
“As consumers realize that the photo products they can create are limited only by their imaginations – not by the equipment at the retail location – and that the processes and tools for designing these products are easy to access and operate, more of these higher-margin photo keepsakes will be produced and sold,” Villard said.
“Consumers are now able to order a range of image-based products – for themselves, for friends and relatives, for pets, for the kitchen, for the bedroom (curtains, for example) – using their own unique images,” he said. “The range of product offerings is being immensely expanded as new imaging tools like the ones we’re showing at PMA become available. With these tools, photo retailers can move from a business model centered on simply selling prints to a model that defines them as the source of an entire menu of creative, highly appealing, high-margin photo-based products.”
“It is in this area that we see the best opportunities for growth – both for the retailer and for KIS Photo-Me Group,” Villard said. “It forms the core of our current strategy, and we believe it is the right strategy.”
Quality products from KIS Photo-Me Group are available worldwide. Pricing and other information can be obtained by contacting the company-authorized representative. In the U.S., KIS USA. at 1-866-374-7374.

About Photo-Me International and KIS - Photo-Me International plc is a specialized digital imaging company focused on professional laboratories and end-consumer vending solutions. PMI has developed a unique range of digital professional processing laboratories – minilabs and central labs – and a suite of consumer vending digital imaging solutions. PMI’s minilabs have been developed through its KIS subsidiary in Grenoble, France.

About KIS USA - KIS USA Inc is a US corporation registered in the state of Delaware with headquarters in Grand Prairie Texas. KIS USA is the representative company in the United States for all KIS Photo-Me products.