With 30 million members, PhotoBox is now Europe’s leading online digital photo service. Up until now, PhotoBox has had a physical presence in Europe in just Paris, London, and Sweden, as well as in Australia. With the recently announced acquisition of Valencia-based Hoffmann, a company founded in 2009 with its strength in the digital creation of physical, they will now be increasing their presence in the Spanish market where Hoffmann has 50% share. Hoffmann’s core activties are very complementary to PhotoBox’s ‘plug and play’ strategy and will also enable PhotoBox to strengthen their position in Portugal, Germany and Switzerland.
This acquisition is PhotoBox’s second in the last month, following their purchase of photo development specialist Bellapix. Acquisitions have been a key part of their growth strategy as they also completed two other notable acquisitions in recent years, StickyGram in 2013 and Moonpig in 2011. This approach appears to be paying off as they are now present in 19 countries, have seen their revenues increase 18% over the last year (70% from repeat purchases), and are posting gross margins of 52%.