Two decades and three stories

Milan Škoda's career has so far progressed in 20-year increments. When the Iron Curtain fell, he had managed a drugstore and camera shop for two decades. With the advent of a free market, he became an entrepreneur the first chance he got and opened the business he'd always wanted to have: a photography supply and service store that today holds a nearly unmatched variety of products and is the leading photographic shop in the Czech Republic.

This fall, FotoŠkoda will celebrate 20 years of existence, no small feat for any business but especially impressive considering the revolution photography has undergone since the advent of digitization, the Internet and the especially quick pace of technological developments.

"It was a very challenging five years," Škoda says of the switch from film to digital formats.

The majority of products sold today at FotoŠkoda are, of course, digital, but Škoda is committed to offering services and components for any camera or method of development. In fact, strolling through the three levels of FotoŠkoda, which is much larger than it appears from Vodičkova street, one can see cameras from every era.

Škoda, who began taking pictures with a Czechoslovak camera at the age of 12, said his business started under communism, when photographers had to make do with what was snuck into the market. After the Velvet Revolution, however, Škoda began building up his shop with six employees in 1991, and in 1992, the store opened with 40 employees in the Lucerna building.

"We started at zero," he said. "There were a lot of people selling old cameras, so we helped people sell to each other. It was nearly impossible to order goods from abroad. We started slow: There was no Internet; there were not many possibilities."

Ten years later, a unique opportunity came to move across the street into the newly renovated Langhans Palace. Today, Centrum FotoŠkoda spans a total of 1,220 square meters and has 100 employees.

In the interim, Škoda's son Martin joined the business as IT director, helping FotoŠkoda build its presence and services available online, a growing and important component of the business.

Czechs have embraced online shopping and the discounts it can deliver, especially with electronics. In 2010, e-shops posted 33 billion Kč in sales, a record number and 6 billion Kč more than the previous year, according to the Association for Electronic Commerce. Online, Czechs buy more than one-fifth of sold technical goods, like consumer electronics, a higher percentage than most European countries, the association estimates.

FotoSkoda.cz has kept apace with this trend, offering an online shop, an online bazaar for used products and an online photo development service that allows customers to order and upload prints for either pickup or delivery. The brick and mortar of FotoŠkoda, however, remains an important distinction for the company.

"Electronic chains have to find a place on the market through specialization," Martin said. "It's about giving additional value. Customers often just go for the cheapest price online, but they're not getting any added value with that. They don't get service; they don't get advice on how to work with their camera."

"We are a showroom for these big brands in the photo business - Nikon, Canon, etc.," he added. "You can come into the shop and see the whole range of products from these companies."

Nearly 4,000 people come through FotoŠkoda on a daily basis, a mix of loyal customers that includes the region's professional photographers and hobbyists as well as tourists who need either service for their cameras or photo development.

"About half of our customers are from abroad," Milan said. "When they come in, I think it's really a surprise for them when they see how special and big it is. It's incomparable to anything in Europe."

But a big draw is the displayed art. FotoŠkoda is connected to the Langhans Gallery and also hosts its own Mini Gallery exhibits, weeklong presentations of both amateur and professional photographers' portfolios, all clients of FotoŠkoda. The store also cooperates with Prague's Film and TV School, FAMU, organizing classes on photography in the evenings and occasional weekend workshops.

The Škoda family has thought about expanding elsewhere - but only briefly, as they've found they are happy with what they've built. Their building is already filled to the rafters with as big a variety of products as they can fit, and besides, the website has brought them to more distant markets, anyway, Milan said. His second 20-year career has been unique in that he's been able to connect his business with a cultural center, a symbiotic relationship that has been fulfilling as well as profitable.

Claire Compton can be reached at
ccompton@praguepost.com