Ifolor benefits from partnership with Apple
Kreuzlingen TG – Ifolor produces personalised photo products such as photo albums. Beginning in autumn, its products can also be ordered directly on Apple’s photo app. This could lead to sales of an additional CHF 20 million, said CEO Filip Schwarz.
Ifolor is only one of five companies worldwide that is connected to Apple’s photo app, said Filip Schwarz in an interview with the Tagblatt. The collaboration came about because the company from Kreuzlingen in the canton of Thurgau moved from picture development to software development years ago.
“That’s why we came to Apple’s attention. We still continue to print our products ourselves, but the technology has changed completely. Digital printing has replaced the chemical process,” said Schwarz.
Ifolor currently delivers its products to eleven countries, but that number will rise to 18 through its partnership with Apple. “We estimate that we will make sales of an additional 20 million thanks to this collaboration. At this time, our annual turnover is around CHF 150 million,” explained Schwarz.
Apple’s market share of stationary computers is 10 per cent in Europe and 23 per cent in Switzerland. But with regard to smartphones in Switzerland, it is already up to 50 per cent.
Apple has already boosted brand awareness about Ifolor in the lead up to the collaboration when it presented the company’s logo to a global audience at a developer’s conference in June. “Afterwards we were allowed to participate in the international press tour. There’s actually no higher honour.”
Despite successfully transitioning from conventional photo development to digital technologies, Schwarz says that the question of future-looking concepts still comes up.
“The digital products business is at its peak in Europe. It now comes back to the basic question: How will the customer want to relive or present their emotions in the future?”
To answer this, new business areas are increasingly being initiated.