Chas Halsey, Managing director, Focal Point Imaging
www.focalpointimaging.co.uk
Where do you see the greatest wide-format opportunities?
We have just launched a complete package of scan, preparation and print solutions aimed at our educational customer base and the sales have been very strong. On the materials side canvas is still king at the moment, with block prints and acrylics now proving very popular.
What would make your day-to-day operations easier?
Over the last 18 months we have fine-tuned our operation and are working smarter rather than harder. This has freed up my time so I can concentrate on specific marketing and sales opportunities.
Your favourite bit of kit is…?
An Aston Martin DB9 it on the shopping list! Other than that, the Epson 11880 which generated so many sales in 2009 and has produced consistent stunning prints.
What’s the best bit of business advice you’ve been given?
Get to know your customers on both a professional and personal level – network with customers as the more you know about them the greater the opportunities.
What are you most proud of achieving?
2010 will be our eighteenth year in business and having survived the ups and downs we can see a positive future. This must actually rank second in my proud list – after watching my family growing up and doing their own thing.
What lesson does the wide-format sector need to learn?
I don’t think this can be answered without sounding glib. Wide-format is an infant by comparison with all the print technology that has preceded it. It is so diverse in it’s application and has become a mainstream solution so relatively quickly that every day there is a new lesson for it to learn, each as important as the one before. Today’s “rule of thumb” is the basis of tomorrow’s “writ in stone”. What is important is that we all learn from whatever lesson crops up.
