ANDOVER is now home to the first photo retailer in the country to use a ‘radical’ concept first developed in Tokyo to combat the decline in photo printing.
Photo services and cartridge shop Photos2Print held a grand reopening on Thursday, 2 November.
Previously Cartridge & Personalised Print World, the Bridge Street shop is the first retailer in the UK to use FUJIFILM’s Wonder Photo Shop concept.
The Wonder Photo Shop forgets the old clinical style of photo developing, with a fresh approach by using instax camera.
Lesley-Ann Simmonds, who owns Photos2Print alongside her husband Mark Simmonds, said: “We were excited by FUJIFILM’s research in this area, and after visiting the Barcelona store and seeing the concept for ourselves, we knew it was the right direction for our cartridge and photo business.
“We completely revamped our shop in line with FUJIFILM’s new concept and were delighted to be asked to be the first retailer to offer the Wonder Photo Shop Concept in the UK.
“Although it doesn’t quite have the same excitement as New York or Barcelona, we’ve certainly put Andover on the map.
“We started as Cartridge World some 14 years ago and have worked hard over the years to adapt and change our business from a cartridge shop to now offering a complete photo, print and cartridge service.”
Mark and Lesley-Ann have have created a scrapbooking and crafting area, allowing customers to design and paint their own photo frames, scrapbooks and so much more in-store.
Peter Wigington, marketing manager at Fujifilm, said: “The Wonder Photo Shop concept is very important to Fujifilm as it represents our vision of what a modern photo retail store should be.
“It takes consumer photo beyond just a 6x4 print into a whole world of creativity and fun.
“With Photo2Print, Mark & Lesley-Ann have brought that vision to the UK.
“It makes me very proud that they believed this was the future for their business too and I look forward to working with them and their
fantastic team on even more new ideas for photo products and services in the future.”
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