ASDA PORTRAIT STUDIOS CLOSE SUDDENLY!

• ASDA Portrait Studios Close suddenly! – The Portrait Studios in ASDA stores in the UK have all suddenly closed down, leaving some customers with unfulfilled orders and missing images. The studios were owned and operated by PCA International (UK) Ltd, originally a subsidiary of the Portrait Corporation of America Inc., which went into Chapter 11 in the U.S. on August 31, 2006. (Yes, 2006!) [expand story >>>]

Portrait Corporation of America operated studios at more than 2,000 sites worldwide. They were the sole operators in ASDA/Walmart. They were bought out of bankruptcy last summer by rival CPI Corp., the operator of the Sears portrait studios, who coveted the WalMart relationship. CPI had gone digital, and cited its digital lead as one of the key things that would enable it to operate the former PCA studios more successfully. There were five branches of The Portrait Studio in ASDA stores in the UK prior to the closures.

ASDA gave us a prepared written statement for the press, which said: "We are really sorry to hear that some of our ASDA customers have experienced problems with PCA International (UK) Ltd who supply photographic reprints, canvasses and portrait crystals in 5 of our stores. The abrupt closure of their shops was totally unexpected and a surprise to us. Although we are not obliged to, we are where possible, fulfilling all outstanding orders or providing customers with a full refund to ensure they don't lose out."

PhotoWeek! is guessing the closures could be seen as just an aftershock of the long-ago and far-away PCA bankruptcy, not a failure of in-store portraiture in the UK. Shooting portraits doesn't seem to have been the core of what The Portrait Studio did.

[As this week's issue was closing, we had been unable to get through to PCA International (UK) management to ask the exact reason for the closure of The Portrait Studios, or to confirm whether PCA itself is still trading, and carrying on other activites around the manufacture and export of portrait crystals, or to establish its past and current relationship to CPI.]

Related Stories:

ASDA is doing portraits – from photographers.co.uk
Tesco Portraits? – from photographers.co.uk [add comment]