What has changed in the last 11 years?

[Gesso&Bole]

Hello Everyone.

Let me introduce myself . . . . . I am Jim Anderson, and I started as a picture framer in 1986, after a short spell as Commercial Manager at Framers Equipment in Rochford. I ran Abbey Framing in Waltham Abbey, and Walls of Frame in Bishops Stortford, and then set up Walls of Frame in Mapperley, Nottingham in 1996. Sold my picture framing business in 1999, to make my fortune in the restaurant business!!!

Well, 4 restaurants, (Le Mistral for anyone in Nottingham or Derbyshire), 120 staff, and 11 years later I have come to the conclusion that working 7 days a week until past 11 o’clock at night is a mugs game! So I’ve sold up, had a few months off, and now ready to get back into the framing business.

Shop (Central Derby) will be ready for occupation in a couple of weeks, then decorating/fitting out, and stock production – target to open for business June 1st.

So I’ve been doing loads of research, and I’ve found a few things that are new;

STICKY MOUNTBOARD
COMPUTERISED MOUNTCUTTERS (I’m having one of those!)

And a few that are just the same;

D J SIMONS (still haven’t returned my call!)

So my question to the forum is. What else has changed in the last 11 years that I need to know about?

[kev@frames]

changes we've noticed:

the internet and the business it brings in is the biggest significant change to framing a lot of small business. (and of course internet competition)

several of the family run suppliers have been bought out and assimilated into a couple of the bigger players. Which actually makes ordering easier. We deal with only one main wholesaler for 80% of our stuff, another for 15% and a third supplier for some mouldings we cant get elsewhere. This is far easier than a dozen separate accounts and a dozen panicking whining "credit controllers" freaking out every other month when their business is in trouble, not yours.

Reps hardly ever visit compared to the late 90s early 2000s.

an overall "raising" of standards, particularly to working with conservation-type materials and conservation type glass.

The prints-off-the-wall business seems to have slumped for many, and been replaced by ready made frames.

The bottom end of the market is even less worthwhile bothering with than it ever was, and the higher end is better and easier to sell to.

and.... " working 7 days a week until past 11 o’clock at night" seems to still apply to busy frame shops, too.

10 years ago we were 90% cash, 10% cards. Now we are more than 90% cards and less than 10% cash over the counter, and of course 100% card/electronic payment online.

good capable reliable all-round framers and staff are harder to find and keep.

FATG? no changes there.

[Nigel Nobody]

That's a great summary,Kev! Well done!
I have no experience up there in UK, but one thing that has changed down here is that the quality of mouldings has gone down somewhat. Everyone wants cheaper mouldings and suppliers want to take business away from competitors so they compete on price, so quality suffers. Modern compo is not the same as the old compo and is brittle and chips badly. Some are impossible to use if you have a chopper!

Mouldings colour range has diminished dramatically. Suppliers will delete a moulding from their range unless it sells 27 container loads a minute! There are so many gaps that I am thinking of doing the unthinkable - colouring mouldings myself!

Quiz: Find the hidden, tiny exaggeration in this post!

[David]

I'd agree with the above. The first things that came to my mind were the rise of the internet and decline of yellow pages and the like.

The improvement in conservation framing and materials, conservation mountboard and UV glass are now standards in my shop. Mouldings definately turn over faster, here one year gone the next. Wood quality and depth has gone down - more pulpy crumble with your fingers stuff.

Print and limited edition sales have dropped off and a lot of galleries have turned away from the larger limited edition suppliers. I have an Ikea 2 miles away and you just can't or want to compete at that end of the market. Art fashions seem to change quicker than they used to.

I used to see 1 or 2 reps a week now I don't see that a month.

Everything seems to change a lot quicker than it used to.

More regulations and Government red tape.

I still enjoy it though. Interesting post. David.

[Perfection]

Other than all that said below, I'm 4 stones heavier, my kids eat 5 times what they used to, my wife is still drop-dead gorgeous, Huddersfield Town are still crap, customers want 59 times more for 3 times less and I totally agree with everyone on the forum - this is still a brilliant business to be in.

[mikeysaling]

what happened to the 'green' lady over every ones fireplace - and the ducks are now collectable! To a degree - a large degree - its a disposable society! why conserve (conservation issue) art ? thats gonna be chucked/disposed of?

u/v for the green lady?

[mikeysaling]

actually i've not priced it but what difference would uv over std 2mm glass make to a frame say 80 x 40 mm frame ? to the customer i mean in £ not %

[Nigel Nobody]

Mike,
The difficulty with answering that question is that everyone seems to have a different method of pricing UV glass. (and just about every other framing component.)
Perhaps you could average out a few responses when they come!

Not to get off the current topic, one of the things that has changed and is changing is the usage of UV glass. More framers are offering it, than 11 there were years ago.
There is still a resistance from a large number of framers, because "it costs me too much"!
My opinion is to let my customers decide whether it costs too much!

[Gesso&Bole]

Wow!
Thanks very much for those replies everybody.
That gives me quite a few areas to research a bit more. I was particularly interested in Kev's comment about the consolidation of suppliers, as I used to have a nightmare trying to keep carriage free order values for half a dozen suppliers. I was thinking of using just one large supplier (Simons or Arqadia) and then having a weekly van service supplier for top up (Wessex or Mitrecraft) - I like to hand finish wherever possible so look for unfinished mouldings, or finished ones that can have easy colour adjustment. Do you think this is a viable supplier strategy.

I was unsurprised, but saddened to hear that there has been little improvement for FATG or Huddersfield town . . . . .

[Dermot]

POS (Point of Sale) software is more in use these days, John who set up this Forum also developed and is the driving force for EstLite http://estlite.scenes.biz/

This Forum and the Grumble www.thegrumble.com are around for support.

The Spring Fair for framing is on its last legs.

You will find some restaurant’s will now show art and there is even a restaurant in Ireland who’s owner is also an artist….he was featured on radio yesterday.

Visualisation software is also starting to make an appearance (excuse the pun) http://pre-view.biz/ John is also the driving force for Pre View.

[Jonny2morsos]

I was thinking of using just one large supplier (Simons or Arqadia) and then having a weekly van service supplier for top up (Wessex or Mitrecraft)

You might be out of luck with Mitrecraft. A number of different stories doing the rounds but I suggest giving them a ring to check their latest trading position and confirm what is happening in Lincoln. They were sold to Tabmaster in Leicester about 18 months ago.

I would recommend Tawnycraft in Northampton Tel 01604 792782 as a reliable wholesaler for your glass, sundries and a reasonable range of mouldings all at decent prices.

[Perfection]

Re pricing UV glass.

I have a pretty useful method of pricing - well, it works for us!

I take the standard list prices we get from suppliers (regardless of any discount we may get) and charge out at 2.5x. I take the total material cost (multiplied by 2.5) then add an element for time dependant on work involved then the dreaded VAT. This means that, say, a 40x30 frame with normal glass that I might charge £90 +vat for would cost around £105 +vat with Tru Vue Conservation Clear. (I charge full sticks of moulding to every frame but only charge the glass used). So a 40x30 frame would cop for a 1/3rd of a sheet of glass charge - £1.33 (x2.5) for standard glass, £7.00 (x2.5) for Tru Vue making a difference of £14.18 which I would round up to £15.00.

That keeps my gross margin on material cost at 60% which we can live with.

Hope that helps.

It confuses the b**gery out of my wife!

[Roboframer]

I was thinking of using just one large supplier (Simons or Arqadia) and then having a weekly van service supplier for top up (Wessex or Mitrecraft) - I like to hand finish wherever possible so look for unfinished mouldings, or finished ones that can have easy colour adjustment. Do you think this is a viable supplier strategy.

Yes I do - the more you spend with a supplier the better deals you can get, I have three main suppliers, one of which (Nielsen) delivers on their own van at no cost and no minimum order either, but seeing as I get practically all of my mountboard from them it's still difficult to make carriage- paid orders with the other two (Arqadia & Simons) - but that cost is factored in whether I have to pay it or not - this and the fact that my prices are based on suppliers' list prices and not discounted prices, gives quite a bit of flexibility if a customer discount is warranted - for example large orders, repeat custom, nice cleavage, etc etc.

[Not your average framer]

The almost total disappearance of Ramin.