HP and Tesco Partner to Provide Affordable, Convenient Photo Publishing Solutions to Customers

LAS VEGAS, HP and Tesco today announced they are partnering to grow Tesco’s photo publishing offerings.

The relationship will see the retailer roll out HP’s retail publishing solutions to more Tesco Extra stores across the United Kingdom. The collaboration will allow customers to choose from more than 300 creative print projects, print photos or order personalized gifts conveniently as they shop for groceries.

The announcement was made at the PMA 2009 tradeshow.

Building on a successful 2008 pilot in a small number of Tesco Extra stores, which demonstrated a clear expansion of the category, the global retailer now plans to roll out the full suite of HP’s award-winning HP Photo Center solutions to more Tesco Extra stores across the U.K.

With the wide range of creative print and photo products available from HP, including favorites like photo books and greetings cards, Tesco customers will enjoy a broader choice of services, greater ease of use when creating and designing gifts and the convenience of having more photo stations available in each store.

With the retail publishing market expected to grow by more than $36 billion in the next five years,(1) HP is poised to help retail partners such as Tesco broaden the customer offering and maintain peak efficiency of their photo centers. By transforming traditional photo labs into robust publishing centers – which, in addition to prints, can produce digital media, including creative photo products and new forms of output – HP enables retail partners like Tesco to offer their customers additional range that goes beyond the 4 x 6-inch print.

“HP is helping Tesco seize new growth opportunities and tap into the vast publishing marketplace that exists today,” said Rohit de Souza, vice president and general manager, Retail Publishing Solutions business, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. “HP offers Tesco and its customers an unparalleled choice of printable assets. Not only can customers quickly and easily create customized photo projects, but small and micro businesses can create dynamic, professional-quality, low-cost collateral at retail.”

“This agreement with HP further demonstrates Tesco’s commitment to offering customers a broad range of professional and memorable products and printing services at affordable prices,” said Graham Harris, Commercial Hardlines Director, Tesco. “Tesco chose HP for the reliability of its photo center and its quality of output, which match the high level of service we guarantee to our customers.”

Upon implementation, Tesco customers using HP Photo Centers will see the following benefits:

* More choice: The HP Photo Center 4.0 is a complete photo solution that enables customers to order vibrant, lab-quality photos and create a variety of creative photo products such as photo books, calendars, greeting cards and posters.
* Greater ease of use: User-friendly touchscreen interfaces on order stations intuitively guide customers through each step of the ordering process – for quick image selection, product choice, image editing, theme selection and final product preview.
* Improved experience: Adding additional photo kiosks saves customers time while engaging and knowledgeable staff make the ordering experience more enjoyable.

HP and Tesco plan to build on their relationship by providing intuitive, high-quality creative print services to more Tesco customers over the next year.

More information on this announcement and other news from HP at the PMA 2009 tradeshow is available in an online press kit at www.hp.com/go/pma2009.

About HP

HP, the world’s largest technology company, simplifies the technology experience for consumers and businesses with a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

(1) Includes retail photo, personal publishing (printable licensed products), micro and small business printing.