Newmarket store celebrates 20 years on the High Street

High Streets across the land may be taking a battering but a Newmarket couple who started their business 20 years ago with no retail experience, have shown that good service and a personal touch can buck the trend.

Denis and Lesley Ferguson moved to the town from Staffordshire specifically to set up shop in the High Street quitting their jobs and leaving behind family and friends.

Although neither had run a shop before they certainly had the experience to set up a photographic printing business. Denis had worked as a lab technician and later as a minilab area manager for photographic giant Kodak, while Lesley had been a supervisor in charge of film production.

Their shop, My Fotoshop, had first opened its doors in pre-digital days but the couple’s skills have seen it evolve and adapt as today most images are produced from phones and tablets.

And although the core business is still photographic printing, there are plenty of options for customers to have their special images printed as posters, canvasses, collages and a wide range of other personalised gifts.

One of the shop’s most popular services is converting VHS and camcorder tapes to dvds as well as the production of dvds/usb sticks from most types of cine film. “We are also one of the few photo shops in the area able to offer online passport photos using the passport code system,” said Lesley.

“We also take photographs for driving licences, visas and bus passes.

“With thousands of images now stored on phones, tablets and Cloud services there is a danger that a whole generation will not have any images printed and they could be lost forever.

“We have helped many customers who have potentially lost images.”

And for customers who have unearthed a precious old photograph that appears damaged beyond repair, the shop offers a restoration service.

“We believe that because we work full time in the shop we are able to offer a more personalised service,” said Lesley, “and we have recently extended our shop lease so we will be here for a few more years yet.”