Company: Abar Imaging Center
Location: 35 Corliss St., Providence
Number of Employees: 50
Type of Business: Commercial photo finishing
Owner: George and Nancy Champagne
Year Founded: 1954
Annual Sales: $5 million
George R. Champagne discovered his knack for the photo business early on.
It started in 1967, when his father bought Abar, a color photo finishing business
on Eddy Street in Providence. Champagne, a teenager, started working after school
and on Saturdays in the lab. He continued through high school. And while studying
business at Bryant College he worked 30 hours a week, soaking up knowledge that
he would need as the future owner of the company.
“He had a feel for it,” recalled his father, George Champagne Sr. “He was just
a natural. He was great at talking to customers; he had studied a lot of technical
equipment. He knew the answers.”
It was natural then that George R. Champagne and his wife Nancy would buy the
company from his father in 1989. Since then Abar Imaging Center, now located
on Corliss Street, has grown into a $5 million business and was recently named
“1998 Photofinisher of the Year” by Photographic Processing, a national trade
magazine.
The business is built on commercial photo finishing. To the left of the main
lobby is what Champagne calls “Film City,” where photographers drop off film
for processing, done in three hours.
Much of Abar’s business, however, is in producing displays for advertisers.
Back-lit ads, backgrounds for trade shows, signs, and interior decor are staples
of Abar’s business. The company also offers laminating and mounting service.
Part of working with customers to design their displays appropriately, George
R. Champagne said.
Abar was founded in 1954 by Earl Davis, a friend of George Champagne Sr. Davis
started the business to take advantage of Kodak’s new Type C color processing
technique, the forerunner of today’s color prints. A photographer himself, Davis
started Abar to serve other photographers, including wedding and portrait photographers.
Davis asked Champagne, who had his own portrait studio, to join him in 1955.
Champagne obliged, and worked with him until Davis retired and sold the company
to Champagne in 1967.
Abar has changed greatly since then. It has grown from five to 50 employees.
It has moved from Eddy Street to Corliss Street, into a 35,000 square-foot plant
near the U.S. Post Office. The most dramatic change, however, has come with
digital technology.
Once an image has been scanned onto a computer file it may be altered in a number
of ways. One of Abar’s services is working with customers to create the images
they want. The picture quality, George R. Champagne said, is also better than
traditional photo processing.
“The quality of digital imaging is so far superior to traditional photo (processing),”
Champagne said. “It’s also expensive.”
That is one of the central challenges facing Abar now. With technology changing
quickly, the company is forced to pay off its investments in new equipment quickly
so it can afford to buy new products as soon as the old hardware becomes obsolete
— sometimes as soon as six or 12 months after it was purchased, Champagne said.
Over the years, the Champagnes have solved such problems and stayed current
in the business by attending trade shows and by belonging to national trade
associations, such as the Association of Professional Color Labs.
Most of Abar’s employees, Champagne noted, have grown up with the company and
have been trained along the way. When he looks to hire new people, he said,
he looks for experience and computer savvy. Champagne indicated that his background
as a photographer helps him serve the photographers he does business with now.
In addition to his degree from Bryant, Champagne has earned a master’s degree
in photography from the Professional Photographers of America.
Today, his photographs are displayed in Abar’s lobby and throughout the plant.
Though Champagne said Abar does not have a problem with attendance of its employees,
one way the company encourages punctuality is by giving away a new car every
year in December, just before the holidays.
Employees who punch in and out on time every day each week are awarded points.
The more points they earn, the more chances they have to win the car, which
was a Saturn last year. The winners are free to keep the car or sell it, Champagne
said.
