New Qualex Custom Wholesale Photo Services

Retailers can rely on a range of new digital fulfillment services from Qualex, Kodak's wholesale photofinishing subsidiary in the U.S., to grow their photo business.

Qualex's digital solutions provide retailers with alternative price/value printing solutions, digital fulfillment to locations that cannot justify in-store investment, and an expanded portfolio of offerings beyond what they can do on-site.

"Our broad range of services and ability to serve virtually anywhere in the nation, allows retailers to offer a full line of digital products and services at any location, regardless of store volume or store capabilities," said Mark DeSimone, president of Qualex. Qualex's new services include a picture scanning service, and a wide range of custom photo merchandise including photo books, flip books, collages, posters and mugs.

The picture scanning service gives consumers the option to pick up a kit from a participating retail location or order a kit from an on-line website. Consumers simply follow the instructions to package all their photos and then returns the kit with their prints to the retailer, or ships it directly to Qualex.

Qualex scans the images, uploads them to an on-line account and safely stores them to a KODAK Picture Movie DVD, which can contain up to 2,000 images. The service, which will be available this summer, is expected to cost less than $100. The original pictures and completed KODAK Picture Movie DVD are returned in the same manner they were delivered to Qualex.

Qualex offers retailers and on-line partners innovations including a full assortment of photo books, as well as other custom photo products, such as calendars, posters and greeting cards. New Qualex KODAK PERFECT TOUCH flip books, printed on silver halide paper, are available for consumers dropping their film or digital media off at one of Kodak's retail partners or from the retailers' on-line service. Flip books are available from on-line image files now and will be available beginning in May from film, CDs and memory cards. The suggested retail price starts at $7.99 per book from on-line orders and an incremental $3.99 per book for film and digital media orders. Qualex will also produce, on KODAK NEXPRESS Digital Production Color Presses, custom-bound photo books for retail partners enabled by the new KODAK EASYSHARE Custom Creations Software.

In another new offering, Qualex will unveil plans for a line of premium soft- and hard-cover photo books printed on Kodak's NEXPRESS digital printing system, ranging from 5x7-inch size up to a coffee table size 12x14-inch, 80-page book. These premium books will be offered at a variety of prices and options. The suggested retail prices range from $12.99 to $69.99, depending on size and cover materials. In all, Qualex will offer a choice of 11 different types of photo books - Kodak.