Please help, I want to set up my first minilab.

[FVBest]

Dear Member and all friends,

Due to the growth of photo business.

I really want to set up my first minilab in Bangkok, Thailand.

Please tell me what I really want to know.

I'd done my own research about RA-4 printer, finally I choose the Doli. (because the quality output with low running cost). Is this true? (The second runner is Digital Portal with the same reason).

But many other thing like upload photo website. Financial system, QC process and etc. I'd no idea.

Please give me a cue to set up my first minilab too.

Best regards,

FVBest

[Guest]

Finest Tip. Use only Noritsu Machine. Don't go for Chinese or any other brand, Just an advise.

[FVBest]

Thank you very much.

I heard that Noritsu laser head is very expensive and much higher running cost.

But a number of guru also tell me that Noritsu is the best minilab.

In Thailand 12bit RA4 printer start at 125,000 US$ and the dealer said that we have to change the laser head every 1.5 year at 10,000 US$ of cost.

For me that is too high.

Please advice.

Best regards,

FVBest

[Guest]

It is not true always. Every product on this earth has a life. You should to buy a lab which have a good life and less used. Noritsu machines are the best and user's friendly. Though we gave service to all major brands like Fuji, Agfa, Konica but our experience in the minilab business from last two decade and conclusion is Noritsu has less and recoverable breakdowns.

[FVBest]

Thank you very much for your advice.

Now I know from your answer that there are 3 light source type for Noritsu, so I read more and found that please comment for my conclusion below

• 
  [1] Laser (Highest machine price, Highest running cost, High Maintenance, Highest Quality)
  [2] LED Light source (High machine price, Low running cost, Low Maintenance, High Quality)
  [3] i-Beam (Lowest machine price, Lowest running cost, Lowest Maintenance, Lowest Quality)
  

Is my conclusion right?

I just want your recommendation and comment for my first minilab.

I've not fully confident on my income from the lab and want to test the market first.

Please should the best for long run business also suitable for new comer like me.

Best regards,

FVBest

[Guest]

Well, at present there are two imaging engines are avaialable with Noritsu. Laser and ibaem. It is NOT true that ibeam has a low reolution pictures or low quality pics. It is only you may need a professional to install your ibeam minilabs and can teach youhow to tune ibeam. Only a high professional may can find the quality difference between laser and ibeam. We had installed more than 20 ibeam machines in Africa and middle east.

[Mark Amies]

I have mentioned this already in response to one of VF's other postings, but had you consider Dry Lab options, as opposed to the traditional Wet lab option?

[PRASANNA PHOTO TEC]

hi

whats need prints size ?  cheep machine is frontier 330/340/350/370

dolli is ok  u can  eran money, u want sell ,secound coustomer not by,  

u all ready by dolli ? we can give support, please e mail me

[NeilT]

Finest Tip. Use only Noritsu Machine. Don't go for Chinese or any other brand, Just an advise.

That is a very biased view  :-/

If I was about to set up a new Mini Lab Business, it would be a dry lab 100% Easy to set up, low running cost, good up time, no mess, no chemicals, more cost effective to run, more friendly to the environment.

I would keep ALL options open, and contact ALL vendors to see what kit is available.  

[Mark Amies]

Bang on Neil. Yes, have a look at the full market ,not just the usual and obvious names, and keep your head open to new ideas.

Most new labs being sold now are dry labs.

[jurieg]

Finest Tip. Use only Noritsu Machine. Don't go for Chinese or any other brand, Just an advise.

Nothing wrong with Chinese brands, it was the Chinese who gave us gunpowder and maglev trains! I believe Doli machines are such good value in fact that they were once the OEM of choice for famous brands like Agfa & Copal.

Yes sure, Noritsu make good machines and so does DNP, Fuji & Kodak. A little expensive maybe but then there are still a few hardline Noritsu users who attach a bit of snob value to them, kinda like Mac users vs PC.

The important thing to remember however is that we are all in this business to make money and by far the most sensible option for a consumer photo lab in these times are the following. Don't invest the bulk of your capital in a minilab machine. All over the world, the number of prints printed in-store is on the decline while the demand for new services are increasing.

The sensible option is therefore to spend less on a minilab by investing in a dye sub (thermal) dry lab for example, that is also much more economical to run, so you have more capital to invest in other critical solutions. These other solutions you absolutely MUST consider are things like a Kiosk, a Wide Format Printer (canvass, poster, POS & fine art printing), mounting & laminating, ringbinding, in-store photogift production (coffee mugs, garments, teddy bears, etc.) with an LED printer like OKI or eXenux and a couple of heat presses AND a Web Order Entry system that also offers 3rd party fulfillment for things like Printed Albums, Hard & Soft Cover Photobooks, Acrylic & Aluminium mounted prints etc.

You can have all of the things above for less than what it will cost you to invest in an overpriced "wet" mini lab machine with a fancy badge on it.

Also, remember to have a look at DNP Fotolusio. Just click on any of the Fotolusio banners on this forum ...

[jurieg]

Thank you very much.

I heard that Noritsu laser head is very expensive and much higher running cost.

But a number of guru also tell me that Noritsu is the best minilab.

First of all there is no such thing as the "best minilab". All major minilabs are perfectly capable of doing the job they were originally designed to do and to a very high level of standard. There are however different types of minilabs, all of them (including Noritsu) with their own strengths & weaknesses. The trick is therefore not to find the "best minilab", because there is no such thing, the trick however is to find which is the "best minilab" for YOU.

By the way, the most expensive component on a thermal (dye sub) dry lab you will ever have to replace is the thermal head. A thermal head on the Nexlab NL-2000 is about £750-00 (GBP) to replace.

[Guest]

Well Guys!

I am really very sorry that I gave an advise for a right equipment. Neigther Noritsu nor Doli is giving me bread and butter.  We are a team of professional team of engineer and handle all type of minilabs like a driver who can drive almost all cars available in the market.

Once again I am sorry for my suggestion.

[philspectrum]

I Agree that the choice if brand is not critical, but reliability of service is.

I suggest you look fir a company that has a good service team locally, and I suspect that will only be Noritsu and Fuji.

If I were starting up now I would like to have a second hand wet lab and a new dry lab.

Thailand is a very cost conscious economy, and only a wet lab will enable low cost prints, but the convenience and low labour requirements of a dry lab are attractive, and it will be usefull backup if or when your wet lab goes down.

I feel that your choice of kiosks is more critical, you should have 4 or more, ideally double that to genuinely show you mean business!

Your profit will not come from standard prints but from the other stuff.

A wide format printer is a must, and if you are setting up for fast prints, then I suggest you gave as many other fast image services as you can include too, t shirts, mugs, photocopying, etc

depending on space available you might include public use computers too?

Who will your customers be? Tourism in Thailand is very low, young people have skipped prints by using facebook, and I imagine the shrinking pro market is saturated....

[jurieg]

Actually neither Noritsu OR Fujifilm UK have a local service team in the UK. Noritsu let their service engineers go quite some time ago and had to make their sales force redundant only recently.

I don't know if this is the case in Thailand but, like all the other suppliers in the UK, Fuji and Noritsu have been providing their service for some time now via a third party service agent. ALL the suppliers pretty much use the same service agents nowadays.

As a previous lab owner myself however, I found that the corporates treated smaller independant labs purely as a number and appeared to be only interested in their larger accounts. I would assume this is pretty much the trend all over.

As far as cost goes, wetlab is actually less cost effective than drylab for the typical, smaller print volumes that we see today. The lab industry has changed alot and one of the most significant changes is that the volume and margin on prints is not what it used to be AND that these print services are no longer the lab's core product and revenue generator. This is why it is of such vital importance that labs generate their revenue by offering a wide range of high margin, photogift and other services as I describe earlier in this thread.

You must note however that the above applies mostly to independant labs targeting a consumer oriented market, and not to professional or larger wholesale labs who's market is entirely different. This may be the reason why there is often such conflicting advice.