Olan Mills update

December 18th, 2006

A couple of days ago, Photocritic broke the story about Olan Mills going under. It was a weird one, because I don’t generally run corporate news stories like that. However, the story struck a chord with me, because I know what it is like to be struck down without a job as a photographer, and how much trouble it can cause.

I know that this type of thing is a nightmare for those concerned: Sure, the people who were waiting for prints are ripped off, and are left without presents and money, but the real victims of this one are the studio staff and day-to-day employees of the chain. Strangely, it appears as if our article was the only one considering much of this aspect (except for the Mirror, who ran the tabloid-a-licious headline “1,000 workers sacked by recorded phone message“). Other news media also picked up the story, including local press (2, 3), but other than that it has been oddly quiet.

Except from right here, of course. Lots of Olan Mills employees found the Photocritic article. Among the stories, there are some truly moving stories of the adversities the staffers and lower management of Olan Mills, along with a dose of fear about what is going to happen in the future.

Not exactly the kind of Christmas story you want to read, but it’s worth having a look

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Olan Mills goes bankrupt

December 15th, 2006

olanmills.jpgJust heard a disturbing piece of news, which was confirmed by the Olan Mills website yesterday: Olan Mills has gone into administration, effective immediately.

According to my source, the UK chain has tried to sell its business for a while, unsuccessfully. The staff have been told they will not be paid for this month, and the area managers have been told to lock up the stores and go home. There have been reports of some store employees taking equipment home (cameras, computers, studio lights, etc), holding it as ‘hostage’ against unpaid wages.

Can anyone shed any light on if this affects the US company as well? It’d be rather surprising to see one of the most famous portrait studio chains go tits-up…

n

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