Momento Photo Books closes doors
Momento Photo Books, the Sydney-based photo book publishing company, is to close after 20 years in business.
The company confirmed it had gone into liquidation in a Facebook post last night.
"Despite every effort to keep the business alive, economic conditions of the last few years sealed our fate," the company wrote in the Facebook post confirming the closure.
Founded in 2004, Momento was the first personalised photo book company in Australia and New Zealand, with the company highly regarded for its photo books and publishing expertise. It had two arms - Momento and Momento Pro, and employed 21 staff across Australia and New Zealand.
Speaking to AP, founder Libby Jeffery said the business closure was a casualty that began during Covid.
"The biggest issue was two years of Covid compounded by another two years of the cost of living crisis, that left customers with minimal funds for discretionary spending," she said.
"Both our consumer and professional business never returned to pre-COVID health, and while we achieved new levels of efficiency, our costs continued to surge, and the situation became unsustainable."
Despite working on a survival plan, in the the last couple of months the company saw a sudden and significant drop in sales.
"We don't know the cause, but we've spoken to several other companies that experienced the same drop. We fought hard to the end, but we were left with no choice," Jeffery said.
In 2019, the company won the graphic arts industry’s highest honour - considered the Academy Awards of the print world - the Premier Print Awards James H. Mayes Jr. Memorial ‘Best of Show’ prize, for a collector’s edition art book, Middlehurst | Middle Earth, by Australian landscape photographer Peter Eastway.
Beyond this, the company's achievements were substantial - it co-founded the first photo book festivals in Australia and New Zealand, contributed to the preservation of 52 antipodean photo books in the UK's Tate Gallery, supported the launch of hundreds of self-published books, and established programs to assist students and camera club members.
Momento also won hundreds of print awards globally, cementing its place as the company for photo book publishing in the region.
But for Jeffery and the team their proudest achievement came from enabling thousands of professional and everyday photographers to preserve their photo memories or self publish their photo books.
"We are comforted that our products will live on for future enjoyment," she said.
"Our parting message is to support local and small business, and never stop keeping your photos safe in print."
According to the company, clients with current orders and outstanding business with Momento should contact the liquidator, PKF, directly.
Our thoughts are with the Momento team.