Blacks Photography, stylized as BLACKS (formerly Black's), is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

online retailer of photo prints and personalized photo products, home decor items, and photofinishing services. It is headquartered in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada. Prior to 2015, Blacks was a

brick and mortar Brick and mortar (also bricks and mortar or B&M) refers to a physical presence of an organization or business in a building or other structure. The term ''brick-and-mortar business'' is often used to refer to a company that possesses or leases r ...

retail chain focusing on photography equipment and processing since 1939. However, due to declining business in part to the rise of

digital photography Digital photography uses cameras containing arrays of electronic photodetectors interfaced to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to produce images focused by a lens, as opposed to an exposure on photographic film. The digitized image is sto ...

and

camera phone A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture photographs and often record video using one or more built-in digital cameras. It can also send the resulting image wirelessly and conveniently. The first commercial phone with color cam ...

s, the chain closed on August 4, 2015. Blacks' domain and app assets were sold to Montreal-based '' Les Pros de la Photo'', Canada's largest wholesale photofinsher, which has taken over and operates it as an online business.

History

Blacks was founded in 1930 by Eddie Black, selling home appliances and electronics. However in 1939, with the first Royal visit to Canada being planned, Black anticipated that cameras and related items would be in high demand for the event. That forethought proved so profitably correct that photography would become the focus of Black's business. In 1948, Eddie's sons William Edward Black (1925-2010) and Robert (Bob) Black opened

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

's first specialty camera store on St. Clair Ave, known as "Eddie Black's Cameras". The family owned firm became a public company in 1969 and was listed on

Toronto Stock Exchange The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX; french: Bourse de Toronto) is a stock exchange located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the 10th largest exchange in the world and the third largest in North America based on market capitalization. Based in t ...

and later sold to Scott's Hospitality Inc in 1985. In 1993,

Fujifilm , trading as Fujifilm, or simply Fuji, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the realms of photography, optics, office and medical electronics, biotechnology, and chemicals. The offerings from th ...

bought the company and its 210 stores for $65 million. Blacks expanded into Western Canada and acquired 45 Kit's Camera stores in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, and

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on t ...

. In 1987, Blacks continued their expansion by acquiring the coincidentally-named Brown's Photo chain of the United States. The US stores were sold in 1991. Blacks acquired

Astral Photo Astral Media Inc. was a Canadian media conglomerate. It was Canada's largest radio broadcaster, with 84 radio stations in eight provinces. Astral was also a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, with 23 specialty channels a ...

in 1996, formed in 1968 by

Astral Media Astral Media Inc. was a Canadian media conglomerate. It was Canada's largest radio broadcaster, with 84 radio stations in eight provinces. Astral was also a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, with 23 specialty channels ...

. The Quebec-based stores with locations in four provinces were ultimately renamed "Black's", but the last of the stores in Quebec were closed in 2013. Blacks currently does not have a presence in Quebec. On October 29, 2007, Reichmann Hauer Capital Partners (RHCP) purchased the company. The company and its 113 stores was then acquired from RHCP by

TELUS Telus Communications Inc. (TCI) is the wholly owned principal subsidiary of Telus Corporation, a Canadian national telecommunications company that provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services including internet access, voi ...

on September 8, 2009 for $28 million. In 2014, the company rebranded as "BLACKS", in all caps as their parent TELUS, and without a

possessive apostrophe The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...

, following the lead of fellow Canadian companies such as

Eatons The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew ...

and

Tim Hortons Tim Hortons Inc., commonly nicknamed Tim's, or Timmie's is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain. Based in Toronto, Tim Hortons serves coffee, doughnuts, and other fast-food items. It is Canada's largest quick-service rest ...

. It also launched a new store concept based largely around prints and other creative solutions for digital photography.

Retail closure

On June 9, 2015, Blacks announced it was closing all of its stores on August 8, 2015. The company stated that "Despite the positive momentum and financial improvements our BLACKS team has delivered over the last year, we have been unable to realize profitable growth and it would take considerable investment to adapt BLACKS to ongoing change." A total of 485 employees were affected.

E-commerce

On June 14, 2015, Blacks announced that its online business (website and mobile app) had been acquired by Les Pros de la Photo, based in Montreal. As of August 4, 2015, the Blacks name and online photofinishing business operate under the new ownership.

References

External links

Blacks
{{Authority control Telus Consumer electronics retailers of Canada Photography companies of Canada Companies based in Scarborough, Toronto 1948 establishments in Ontario Retail companies established in 1948 Photographic retailers