Practical Photography

Klick Photopoint and Max Spielmann, two big photo processing companies have gone into administration they have reportedly had to let go of over 800 jobs.

The two companies fall under the Bowie Castlebank umbrella, the companies’ owner, who has reportedly run into financial trouble so much so that last week Administrators at KPMG were called in to the Glasgow-based company.

The 197 branches of Klick and 117 Max Speilmann stores employ 1,664 people, half of which lost their jobs last week, KPMG felt that the financial crisis faced by the company was a due to the digital photography age taking over old fashioned film photography meaning less and less people were in need of film processing.

A spokesman added: ‘Due to the advance in digital photography, the photo processing business has suffered significant losses in recent years… The company explored several opportunities to restructure or refinance the business but these were not successful. The administrators have unfortunately had no option but to significantly reduce trading activity with the regrettable consequence of 817 redundancies.’

The business was founded 130 years ago but are now resigned to the fact they will need to sell off the business at a loss.