RPI Hits Three Million Milestone for Printed Photo Books

Exploding consumer demand through online site partners boosts RPI’s photo book market segment

SEATTLE, WA, January 20, 2009 — RPI (www.rpiprint.com), a leader in automated, mass-customized manufacturing and fulfillment for the consumer print-on-demand market, today announced that it has set an industry record through the production of more than 1.3 million photo books in 2008. This brings its overall production tally to three million photo books since the product’s launch, representing a 60 percent year-over-year growth.

"Photo books is the most lucrative product category in photo merchandise, both in terms of revenue and growth opportunity, and is already generating more revenue than photo cards in both the U.S. and Western Europe,” said David Haueter, associate director of InfoTrends’ Photo Printing Trends Service. “InfoTrends estimates that photo books were a $300+ million market in the U.S. in 2008 and are predicting that revenues will grow over 25 percent compounded annually between 2008-2013. The amount of photo books ordered will grow over 30 percent for the same period. We're convinced that the products in the merchandise category, particularly photo books, calendars and cards, are here to stay and will provide a boost to the market for the next several years."

“RPI has one of the industry’s strongest partner programs, and we share this milestone achievement with them,” said John Perez, CEO of RPI. “Today, our online business-to-consumer partners control more than half of the total photo products market. Together, we are creating a dynamic pipeline for products such as photo books that meet the public’s high standards for quality, cost and on-time delivery.”

With its recent expansion of corporate and manufacturing space, RPI is positioned as the largest digital printer on the West Coast and is capable of scaling to meet the increasing manufacturing and fulfillment demands of the rapidly growing photo products market. By leveraging proprietary print and information technology and industry-leading manufacturing principles, RPI offers print fulfillment and logistics, product design services and end-user product configuration software to all of its partners. .

About RPI
RPI is the leader in automated, mass-customized manufacturing and fulfillment for the consumer print-on-demand market. The company’s broad range of blue-chip retail and online photo publishing customers rely on its consistent, reliable execution, creative design services and best of breed manufacturing for the rapid delivery of innovative products utilizing consumer-generated content. The privately held company is headquartered just outside of Seattle, WA. For more information on how RPI is helping fuel the rapid growth in printing of personalized printed products, please visit www.rpiprint.com.

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