District Photo: From Film to Digital Dominance

What might be surprising is that a company that was founded as a small silver halide, black-and-white photo lab is now celebrating its 75th anniversary and looks very different from the company it was when it was founded: It’s now a printing powerhouse with locations around the world.

Jim Gavitt, chief revenue officer for Beltsville, Maryland-based District Photo (DPI), notes that it was originally a mail order business. “They were one of the largest mail order companies in the country,” he says, “so they were getting 35mm film sent in, processing it, and sending back a package.”

But as technology evolved, the company changed with it to survive. One of the major shifts was in 1989, when Neil Cohen took over as president, bringing with him a push to embrace the emerging digital technologies.

“Neil really had the vision to take the company into a digital space,” Gavitt notes. “We also moved into photo products — books, mugs, and all the other things that go with the photo book products or photo company products.”
And that shift to doing more than just processing film has made all the difference. Today, the company is one of the largest producers of photo products on three continents, creating everything from digitally printed photo books to a wide range of personalized photo products, along with everything from calendars, yearbooks, day planners, sheet music, educational products, and wall decor, to custom promotional products for major brands.

To do it, the company operates more than 40 HP Indigo presses and eight Canon ProStream inkjet web printing presses, giving it the flexibility to produce highly personalized, individual products, where every piece of a run is unique to that customer for many of the applications it produces.

But how did it get from point A to point B?

The Evolution of DPI

To evolve from its roots to where it is today didn’t take just one man’s vision — it also required a lot of work and a team just as passionate about seeing it through.

DPI engaged in a series of strategic acquisitions over the years, allowing it to rapidly grow certain areas at the right times, bring on new equipment and people to help see that growth through, and give them access to new markets organically.

A few highlights of this strategy include:

• The purchase of Paramount Photo in 1982.
• The purchase of Nashua Photo in 1998.
• The acquisition of Snapfish in 2001 (which was subsequently sold to HP in 2005).
• The acquisition of CafePress in 2018.

While those were not the only major acquisitions on the company’s timeline, they represent a few that helped drive the business in new directions. Another interesting point on the timeline is that DPI installed its first digital press in 1994; today, it is an all-digital operation, showing just how far that technology has come.

“Digital print technology for book publishing was the really major change in my mind, because that added a whole classification of product to the business,” Gavitt says. “As that market grew, we grew up with that, if you will.

“Going from the silver halide prints we all grew up with to digital prints, it’s the same product, same kind of clientele, but in a different technology that’s much more efficient [and] productive,” he continues. “We used to have 100 little processors doing film prints slowly ‘chick, chick, chick,’ you know. Now we can print 2 million in a couple of hours.”

And while DPI has expanded into additional products beyond just the prints — which Gavitt defines as 4x6", 5x7", or 8x10" photo prints — those still make up a significant chunk of the business, around 25%. The rest is a broad mix of all the products it offers. Gavitt notes that right now, for example, the company is heavily in the yearbook space, and in the April/May timeframe each year, that offering dominates its product mix.

And it’s not just flat prints either. The company has also expanded the types of personalized items it offers, including shirts, blankets, and towels. It opens up an entirely different avenue for people to personalize or brand, rather than just a standard coffee mug, for example, although DPI certainly does those as well.

And it’s not just individuals doing the buying either. DPI has found there is a large market for small businesses. “There are 100,000-plus little vendors selling T-shirts and mugs and all this stuff online,” Gavitt notes. “And we have figured out how to be a fulfiller for them, and that’s a lot of business you don’t even know exists out there. You go to Etsy and look for mugs, you can find thousands of different mug designs — and we’re a fulfiller in that space. That’s kind of what’s great is we’ve taken that photo book business that we were experts in and migrated into other things."

DPI has many inkjet presses, which it uses to produce everything from photo books to personalized promo products for its customer base. | Credit: District Photo

What’s Next for DPI?

Gavitt notes that one area the company hasn’t focused on is corporate promotional products, but he sees that changing.

“We don’t do any corporate work now; think about somebody needing mugs for a corporate event or some kind of outing or what have you,” he says. “That’s not a space we’re in, but it sure seems like a space we should be in because we have all the technology.”

He notes that the next avenue for growth for the company is not to expand into new technologies, but take what it is already an expert in producing and finding new markets that need that service.

“New applications, new business, new markets, new verticals — that’s really our focus at this point to grow that revenue,” he says. “The photo space isn’t really growing dramatically anymore, it’s a pretty mature market. So, in order to grow, we obviously have to look at other markets, but we’re not looking to become commercial printers — that’s not even of interest to us.”

One potential major growth market Gavitt is eyeing is music books. “I always bring up music books because that’s a pretty unique market that fits us perfectly,” he says. It’s an example of an application that takes the team’s expertise in producing high-quality personalized photo products on digital printing equipment, and finding new ways to leverage it for other markets.

What else is on the horizon? For Gavitt, it’s not about targeting a specific product or application, but rather staying nimble and open to new ideas that is critical to DPI’s growth — both in the past and the future.

“[You have to be] constantly moving with the market and supplying what’s needed to keep the business moving forward,” he notes. “Because, with the advent of the Shutterflies, et cetera, and Amazon Photos and Walgreens, everybody’s in the photo business, right? But you’ve got to migrate. We add products all the time still today, and I think that’s a big thing. If you’re stagnant and you just want to be the same old, same old, you’re just going to be stuck in time.”

He notes that sometimes those ideas come from the team, who decide to try something out and see if it will work, and then roll it out to customers. Other times, he says, the ideas come from a customer bringing them to DPI wanting to know if something can be done, and they find a way to make it work.

Gavitt also isn’t ruling out more acquisitions in the future, as that method of entering new markets has worked out well for DPI in the past. Especially with the convergence going on in today’s printing industry, the ability to consolidate additional work under its own banner is appealing — when the right fit comes along.

With its many acquisitions, DPI has the advantage of multiple facilities, including this one in Louisville, Kentucky. | Credit: District Photo

Looking to the Next 75 Years

Gavitt has a vision he hopes comes to fruition.

“Global,” he says. “That’s the big thing, you know? District Photo today is really three different companies. We do have executive staff that manages the three business units, but we need to be better at having them work together for larger customers, bringing customers together. Because what is happening is the photo book space specifically is getting very global. Most brands you see in Europe you’re going to find in the U.S. and vice versa, and Australia and then even into Asia. As a matter of fact, we have a company coming from Japan visiting our Phoenix facility for fulfillment, so I mean, it’s becoming very global, whereas in DPI’s 75-year history, it was really just an American company.”

He also sees inkjet as a technology that will only continue to grow and improve, opening even more applications in the future. Apparel, in particular, is one avenue of growth he sees continuing to grow in the coming years as people look to take advantage of new technologies to create personalized, wearable items.

And while they are always looking at the latest and greatest print technologies to improve on quality and efficiency whenever possible, he also notes that one thing they are paying attention to now is the finishing side. In the end, he notes, “our technologies still have a lot of new product in them that we can bring to market, but we want to become more efficient. That’s really what [we’re looking at] as we look to invest.”

The future is bright for District Photo, which is well positioned to continue to evolve and grow over the next 75 years. The strategies, technologies, and above all, the attitude to embrace change have served it well thus far, and will continue to take it into a bright future.