When dealing with “visual communications,” one has to be open to change—change in equipment, change in marketing, change in strategy, etc. Leo J. Calagaz is president of The Calagaz Group, which is made up of three divisions: photo retail, commercial printing, and silk screening apparel. And for him, it’s important to reinvent his company without leaving their core competency of imaging too far behind.
Because of this, he made a change into signage and recently co-branded with FASTSIGNS® to open a new franchise in Mobile, Alabama under the Calagaz umbrella.
Visual communications has been a part of Leo’s life for quite some time now. His father started the business sixty years ago as a black-and-white photo-finisher camera retail store. They expanded over the years with multiple locations, and in the 1980s, they put in one-hour processing at their then-nine stores.
But the photo-finishing industry has changed greatly over the past few decades, necessitating those in it to continuously adapt to an evolving landscape.
The 1990s saw corner drug stores implementing one-hour processing capabilities. “The pie was only so big,” says Leo, “and we ended up getting a smaller and smaller piece of that pie.”
In the 2000s, digital cameras became move prevalent. “Fifteen years ago, our sale on film cameras was 80 percent to 20 percent digital,” says Leo. “The next Christmas, those numbers flipped. Today the percentage is 100 percent total digital, which has affected the processing end of our business.
“No one needs an entry-level camera these days, since the point-and-shoot cameras on smart phones have gotten better. They’re already carrying one around in their pocket.”
Because of this, The Calagaz Group diversified into commercial printing, using Canon and Xerox equipment. This led them into a vertical niche market of fulfilling print needs (menus, posters, etc.) for “premier accounts” in the restaurant industry (such as Mellow Mushroom and ten to twenty regional restaurant chains.)
Today the full digital and offset commercial print shop uses three Heidelberg presses, a Xerox I-gen 4, and a Konica Minolta 1200. In 2012, they expanded further by purchasing an apparel silk screening company.
Leo’s nephew, Joe Calagaz, runs the commercial printing division and hooked up with FASTSIGNS at last year’s GraphExpo to learn about their Co-Brand concept targeting small, quick-print dealers and the photo industry. The Co-Brand Franchise Program provides the necessary resources independent owners need to expand their businesses in the signage and visual communications space while still maintaining their independent identities and operations in photo-finishing.
Leo recognized how the Internet has changed the commercial printing industry. Now a customer can order 500 business cards, 1,000 mailers, or 10,000 letterheads online without having to trek down to a brick-and-mortar store. “FASTSIGNS realized that these business owners and entrepreneurs in our industry right now are struggling,” he says.
With the accumulated information, Leo, Joe, and Joe’s sister, Pauline C. McKean, attended a Discovery Day at the FASTSIGNS headquarters in Dallas, and the rest is history.
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Today Leo’s FASTSIGNS franchise is a separate business co-owned by Joe and Pauline (who oversee the day-to-day operations and sales of FASTSIGNS located in the photo store) within The Calagaz Group. “Being an independent company for sixty years, it was a little difficult to decide to go the franchise route,” says Leo. “But when I went to their corporate office and saw over a hundred people supporting their franchisees, I was impressed.”
Before Leo’s companies couldn’t offer signage. Now they can. “We have two outside sales people in the printing side and one on the FASTSIGNS side,” says Leo. “They really complement each other.”
For example, one of his photo-finishing customers is the owner of a Mexican restaurant. After the salesperson sold him a camera, he talked to him about signage and found out that he needed something for his windows. “Our sales person surveyed his restaurant and talked him into having something to promote daily specials (like a ‘Taco Tuesday’),” says Leo. “So we sold him $1,200 worth of window clings.”
Leo notices that photo-finishing and signage share the same results but from unique viewpoints. “A lot of the restaurants use photography, pictures, metal photo prints, and canvases,” he explains. “In the photo-finishing industry, they’re called ‘wall art’; but in the commercial industry, it’s ‘signage.’”
Leo feels his companies, through photography, printing, and signage (and silk-screened apparel), have embraced the visual communications concept and completed a circle of sales, if you will. FASTSIGNS has allowed Leo to cross-market their range of products. “If we go to a retailer, restaurant, or real estate company, we can sell them everything—from their signs to their print material. “We can do their menus, business cards, table tents, wall clings, window clings, outside signs, etc.,” he says. “We can even help them with their photography (if they want to take their own pictures) and their apparel.
“We can go to a school, if they need some banners or banner stands for events. While there, we can discuss if they want to get their students involved in photography or Photoshop®. If so, we can teach classes in this.”
And this expansion has allowed Leo to get the message out to others in the photo-finishing field.
Leo also serves as the chairman of the Buck Rogers National Photofinisher Group, a historic and exclusive organization that is made up of owners, presidents, and decision makers and has strongly influenced industry trends throughout its existence. The group name takes its cue from the famous comic strip and movie serial starring the futuristic fictional character.
“The Buck Rogers Group is basically a forward-thinking group of photo-finishers that’s been around since the 1930s. They’re always considered to be ‘20,000 years ahead of the curve,’” explains Leo. “And back then, somebody probably said, ‘like Buck Rogers’ and the name stuck.”
Part of his responsibilities as current chairman is bringing interesting or cutting-edge things to help these businesses look to the future, so he invited FASTSIGNS CEO Catherine Monson, and EVP of Franchise Support and Development Mark Jameson to this year’s Buck Rogers National Photofinisher Group meet this past February in Mobile to discuss top industry growth strategies, diversification methods, and the Co-Brand Franchise Program.
“Sponsoring this event gave us greater insight into the photo-finishing industry and supplied attendees with new methods of broadening their service offerings,” says Jameson. “In an industry where evolution is a constant need for survival, it’s necessary to consistently adapt in ways that promote long-term growth.”
Leo sums it up nicely, “I’m not sure if the sign franchise concept is a fit for everybody, but we made them aware that this is a possibility. Everyone seemed to appreciate it.
“In order to have stayed in an industry for as long as the [Buck Rogers Group] has, they need to be able to reinvent themselves and change with the times. Because it’s not 1960 any longer.”
For more information about the FASTSIGNS Co-Brand franchise program, call Mark Jameson at 214/346-5679, email [email protected], or visit www.fastsigns.com.
—Jeff Wooten
