Prepress
myPhotopipe.com Reports First Quarter Operating Results
Friday 16. May 2008 - Revenues Rise 26%, Gross Profit Margins Expand to 74%
myPhotopipe.com, Inc. (Pink Sheets: MPPC), a web-based online provider of digital photo processing and related services, today announced its operating results for the first quarter of 2008.
For the three months ended March 31, 2008, revenues increased 26% to $366,329, compared with revenues of $289,869 in the first quarter of 2007. Gross profits increased 42% to $270,373 (73.8% of revenues), versus $189,864 (65.5% of revenues) in the prior-year quarter. The Company reported a net loss of ($73,705) in the most recent quarter, versus a net loss of ($15,753) in the three months ended March 31, 2007.
“myPhotopipe.com continued to post excellent gains in revenues during the most recent quarter, with an increase of 26% over prior-year levels,” stated L. Douglas Keeney, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. “That said, a significant design initiative related to the overhaul of our web site made unexpectedly good progress in January, and we elected to accelerate its launch, which in turn necessitated a concurrent increase in our search engine buys. Accordingly, we realized a slightly higher loss for the period than we anticipated, but we have been extremely pleased with the initial results from the new web site, as measured in a sharp increase in customer acquisitions, excellent industry notices, and continued revenue growth during April.”
“New product introductions continued at our historical pace, which by any measure is rapid and well accepted by the market. Our gallery wraps and mounted products have been well received by customers, as has our pioneering PRPrintsPro platform that is now being used by many professional sports organizations. myPhotopipe.com’s portfolio of greeting cards, a significant vein of revenue that we intend to vigorously mine, has increased by several hundred SKUs since the beginning of the year. Our project to allow local stationery stores to access more than 600 photo greeting cards appears to be progressing towards a beta in the second quarter. And finally, our industry data couldn’t be better. Owners of digital cameras are making prints at historically high and growing levels, and online ordering with direct mail delivery is the channel of fulfillment that is expanding significantly faster than retail, kiosks or any other method of purchasing prints.”
“We’re an online lab serving the needs of professional and serious amateur photographers,” continued Keeney. “This is a segment not all of us understand, so allow me this final thought. According to a recent InfoTrends study, professional photographers are themselves a $5 billion industry. They shoot pictures and earn 80%+ of their mean annual revenues of $130,000 by selling photographic prints. What’s our value proposition to them? In a nutshell it is as follows. Because they waited for high-end digital cameras, professional photographers were slower than the consumer to switch to digital technology. But now, the switch is underway in earnest. Ironically, at the very same time these photographers are ‘going digital’, more than half of their local camera stores, where they went for photo processing, have closed, so they are going online to find a new photo processor. What do they see? Photo mousepads and photo coffee mugs and photo t-shirts — all sorts of ‘cute’ ways to share your photos. That’s not what professionals are looking for. They’re searching for a lab that focuses on making a top notch, professional print at a price that is competitive to any lab in the nation. That’s a description of myPhotopipe.com. That’s our value proposition. Using our products our customers can make a living. That’s a wonderful position to be in. We believe we’re in the right place at the right time, serving a lucrative slice of the digital photography market during a period of extensive brand switching. With persistence and steadfastness, we will emerge as one of the top brands in the business.”