Two new local distributors, Radbitz and PixelOne, entered the market towards the second half of last year with a range of mostly new-to-Australia products which are a good fit with the photo specialty/professional reseller channels.
Both are in the market for more local stockists.
Melbourne-based Radbitz is the newest kid on the block – so much so that its website is yet to go live! It is headed up by Adam Kopf, who has worked in photographic wholesaling for a decade with CR Kennedy, Adeal and Blonde-Robot, and prior to that in pro video and a photo retailing. His co-director worked in retail management with Ted’s, and Jessops in the UK.
The brand portfolio to date consists of: GoScope premium accessories for GoPro cameras; MagMod flash modifiers; Fotodiox professional-grade photo and video accessories (a huge range of products); and NEOpine, which also offers a broad range of camera, action camera and drone accessories.
‘Radbitz is a pure distributor,’ Adam Kopf told PhotoCounter. ‘We do not retail to end users as a policy as we believe it is unhealthy for a supplier to be competing with their customer.’
The Radbitz portfolio will appeal to specialty retailers and their enthusiast and professional customers. With the premium GoScope range of GoPro accessories (eg, the only available quick release plate for GoPro cameras), surf/dive specialists will also get a look in.
‘Specialist stores can convey the features and benefits of these kinds of products better than a mass merchant type store,’ said Adam. He added that being everywhere didn’t necessarily enhance a brand’s profile.
Radbitz has made good links with local retailers since its establishment last September, achieving preferred supplier status with Camera House and its burgeoning list of affiliate stores, along with larger retailers like DCW and DigiDirect.
Adam said that the Radbitz website will be going live this month. ‘Once it does it will have links to brand websites which in turn will list our dealers for that particular product.’
Adam can be contacted at adam@radbitz.com.
The other new name is Sydney-based PixelOne, which made its debut at The Digital Show last year. As well as having a range of PixelOne-branded products – mainly batteries and chargers – it distributes Nisi Filters, ZKin (pronounced ‘skin’) camera bags, WalkStool lightweight portable stools for photographers and others who spend a lot of time ‘out in the field’, and Lumu precision digital light meters.
Pixel One sells these ranges direct online via a series of brand-specific ‘com.au’ websites and currently has a limited number of wholesale customers such as Mainline Photographics, Georges, Dragon Image and (parallel importer) DD Photographics (with which brand manager Andrew Code said Pixel One has a minor cross-ownership).
‘We are a small distributor with a couple of great brands,’ said Andrew Code.
‘NiSi Filters are made from optical glass, have an IR coating and extremely low colour cast. They come in 100mm, 150mm and 180mm sizes for a very wide range of lenses,’ he said.
‘Zkin camera bags are designer camera bags designed for travel, made from water repellant nylon. We constantly get feedback about how great they look and how they look nothing like standard camera bags.
Andrew can be contacted at sales@pixelone.com.au
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