Date: January 18, 2022
To: CCS Customers
From: Jack Counts, Jr.
Last week’s Winter Seminar in OKC was terrific. We were able to share our latest tools and ideas. We heard from several customers on how they are using these tools successfully to save labor, book more business and provide better service. Our PhotoMatch™ and NOW Candid™ programs have benefitted by the significant enhancement of our “registration process.” We can now offer even better ways for you to market your products while using far less labor. You can save money, increase sales, and reduce your need to find staff in a difficult labor market.
Our newest NOW Candid™ programs are specifically designed for social events, sports teams, graduations, and portraits. They are very easy to use and allow you to focus on sales and photography while earning very high margins. Importantly, they eliminate virtually all labor after a shoot.
We will be at SPAC in Las Vegas later this month. We will host a dinner and presentation there for CCS customers on Wednesday January 26th. We will show our latest software tools at this meeting, and we hope that you can join us.
Our objectives for 2022 are to continue improving our products and software offerings while providing you faster delivery than in 2021. Fast delivery is important to both of us. Our lab is very productive; however, we still need an even larger staff during peak periods. We struggled hiring staff for the lab last spring and fall and do not intend to be in that situation again.
At our seminar last week, we announced a general 5% price increase* that will be effective on February 1st. Some wood-based products have gone up even more. We know that to provide the service you deserve; we will have to pay more for staff. Additionally, we are now paying considerably higher prices for photographic paper and some other products. We do not take raising our prices lightly, as evidenced by us not raising print prices over the last 15 years.
How will that 5% increase impact you? If your lab related costs run 30% of sales – that leaves you with a 70% gross margin. You will need to raise your retail prices 1.5% to cover our 5% increase. However, you will need to consider what other escalating costs you may have, like higher labor costs, to determine any price changes you need to make. On the positive side, using our systems will save you a great deal of office labor and time.
We have heard from many of our customers that took advantage of our PhotoMatch™ system in 2021. It has maximized their sales, improved their data accuracy, saved labor costs and the need to hire staff, and delivered their products to customers quickly. This FREE program is part of our commitment to provide you with tools to make you more competitive and profitable.
We want to thank you for your business. We truly appreciate our customers. We consider you our friends and partners and we work to help you become more profitable. Only when you are successful – are we successful.
Sincerely,
Jack
*a detail of price changes will be available in our newsletter this week and a new catalog next week
