Photography News | Issue 37 | absolutephoto.com
23 Interview
Profile Paul Anson LumeJet’s deputy chairman tells us about the recently re-developed business model and what makes LumeJet’s printing so special
Can you tell us a bit about your background and your current role at LumeJet? I am an engineering graduate who worked in various sectors, technically and commercially, before getting involved with inkjet at Cambridge Consultants – the company that created various inkjet technology businesses such as Xaar, Domino and Elmjet. I was a co-founder of Inca Digital Printers – my first true entrepreneurial pursuit. This was acquired by Dainippon Screen and later I was invited to help LumeJet in its development phase. I fell in love with the technology and ended up leading it. At LumeJet I am called deputy chairman. I am the senior executive, but have a distinct role from the managing director in that I try to remain totally focused on the commercial activities – driving the unique LumeJet business model. Themodel and technology sounds too good to be true so it takes a lot of effort tomake people believe it is true! What is the history of LumeJet? LumeJet first existed as a technology business, but some investors and I acquired the company and have turned it into a service business via thepartnershipmodel.We felt that the traditional model of selling machines was not the best way to growLumeJet in the market. We wanted to establish a new business model in which our customers and partners could both generate good margins and deliver true excellence without having to takehuge financial risks –only to then find that their nearest competitor just bought the same machine. We are aiming to work with like- minded partners to build business together in various sectors. We also aim to serve discerning photographers directly, but are equally happy if they buy from our partners and benefit from further added value finishing – mounting, case binding etc.
Who is LumeJet’s target audience? The obvious answer would be professionalphotographers–andthat is partly true. However, consumers are used to incredible quality phones, displays and TVs whilst photo printing is not advancing in the same way. Ultimately, consumer expectation is increasing, but the market is fighting over who can offer the biggest discount. There will always be a low end and a high end, but our goal is to make the ultimate quality available to discerning photographers, designers, photo product companies and therefore – in most cases – ultimately to their consumer and corporate customers, for those times when quality reallymatters. Tell us about the S200 printer, is it unique to LumeJet – what’s so special about it? How long has development taken? There is no short answer. 16 years of development has created what we believe to be the most accurate and natural photo printer. People claim all sorts of crazy resolutions, but we have the most accurate and sharp technology available, with incredible tonal range, thanks to our unique RGB print-head design, the mechanical precision of the machine, and the software and electronics that controls every pixel with absolute repeatability. We haven’t stopped developing either – we know there is more quality available from the paper and we increment a little more every month via continuous development. This is a key benefit of the partner model – sales models drive you to ‘draw a line’ and focus on build costs – we are the technologists and designers, we never stop seeking perfection and we control all the machines. It is unique to our business and our partners, and we will not sell machines so we don’t really care how much they cost to make and we choose to never saturate themarket.
Biography
Years in the photo industry? Over 20, mainly sports Current location? Cambridge/Coventry Last picture taken? LumeJet production facility. Otherwise, my daughter. When youwere younger, what did youwant to bewhen you grewup? A guitarist or an engineer. Dogs or cats? Dogs – I have two cirnecos Toast or cereal? Toast – but always savoury Email or phone call? Phone call We have the most accurate and sharp technology available, with incredible tonal range
can. There are more partners in the pipeline and we welcome approaches frompotential newpartners. For those wanting to use LumeJet’s services what advice can you offer them regarding colour space etc? Why 400ppi images? Via our website, we can work with all commonprofiles – and they shouldbe embedded. Experiencedusers cansoft proof for themselves using our colour profiles and a calibratedmonitor. Our goalisaccuracy–wedonotadjustfiles. We aim to faithfully reproduce the intent of the photographer or designer – with regard to both sharpness and colour. We suggest 400ppi as we can truly hold that resolution – a 300ppi filewill still look great, but isn’t taking advantage of the best we can offer. We can receive files via Wetransfer etc. but we prefer customers to use our new website service and we will keep developing functionality based on feedback and our own ideas. What can we expect to see in LumeJet’s future? We will broaden the product offering to some extent, but diversity will primarily be achieved through the partnerships, and our partners will make it easier to buy products based on LumeJet printing. For the moment we are focused on small to medium format, but we have choices to make for the future and those choices will bemadewith our partners.
What are your thoughts on the state of the current printingmarket? Are consumers printing more? What are their demands? I think it is very exciting to see all the new product offerings and business models emerging. The home printing market is a problem for standard print services – differentiationmostly comes from service accessibility (web, apps, communities) and finishing or product design. There are some great businesses that are winning. However, companies that stick to tired approaches will fail in a race to be bottom on price. We are worried that print is failing to keep up with the quality of displays – why buy a print if the photo looks better on a tablet screen? That is the problem we are focused on and by working in partnership with innovative product and services companies, we hope to do our bit to justify the long- term existence of print. Ultimately, no display can ever generate the emotional response a real print does, but a growing quality gap could change that. Recently LumeJet has partnered up with companies such as Booked Images and Photocrowd – what other affiliations can we expect to see? What is the aim of these connections? This is the foundation of our unique business model. These partnerships are about true reward sharing and cooperation – and diversity for customers. We’d love photographers to buy from us directly, but we’re happier stillwhenwe can lead themto our partners for addedvalue products and services using our print. We don’t aim to make the best books, or mounted products, or create a sharing community –we aimto facilitate print excellence for our partners, so they
Top right The S200 printer is unique to Lumejet. Below LumeJet offer high-quality printing and other products through their partners.
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