Indigo is spinning off its photofinishing activities as a stand-alone business called Photo-e-Print.
Benny Landa, Indigo chairman and chief executive officer, explained the reasons behind the decision to hive off Photo-e-Print. We wanted it as a separate entity because it is a totally different market to our core commercial printing and industrial markets, he said.

We did not want to de-focus our existing management team, he added.
Although a lot of detail has yet to be decided - including who is to manage the business - Photo-e-Print should be operating independently by the end of the year, pledged Landa.
Other question-marks hang over the way the product is sold and distributed. A pricing structure has not yet been fixed.

All will be revealed at Photokina, the photographic trade show in Cologne, said Landa.
Indigo will be demonstrating two versions of Photo-Print at Photokina: a sheet-fed version aimed at professional photographic studios, retailers and trade parks and a roll version, targeted at centralised processing and finishing labs.

Orders will be taken at Photokina and the product is expected to be shipped by the end of the year.

Landa said that, judging from the success of Drupa, demand should be high.
Photo-e-Print produces around 5,000 4x6 digital prints an hour. Indigo claims prints produced on Photo-e-Print have better lightfastness and lower cost per print than competing processes.

Story by Sally Nash