【Inter BEE 2011】With a focus on corporate exhibitor 'Pro Machinery Dot Com's' digital one-eyed movie cameras, we wish to respond flexibly to the constantly changing world of photography.

■Focused on selling peripheral photography equipment

Having held exhibits at InterBEE since 2009, 'Pro Machinery Dot Com' has focused on selling various photography-related equipment. Headquartered in Naha, Okinawa and focusing on peripheral equipment for still cameras, they have been selling their peripheral photography equipment on their website since 2002. They have continued to grow their sales of various large and small support items for users of still cameras, particularly products such as lights, tripods, clamps, and box studios for commercial photography. Having opened sales channels such as 'Pro Machinery Dot Com' in April of 2008, they have also established a branch store in Tokyo (in Shinjuku) known as the Tokyo Showroom, where the actual products can be viewed.

■Optimization of the 'Okinawa Free Trade Zone' by the store, from importing to shipping

in 2004 this company's parent company, an importer called 'Annette, Ltd.', and the two companies that comprise 'Pro Machinery Dot Com' moved to the Free Trade Zone (Okinawa Free Trade Zone) where both companies are headquartered. In this Free Trade Zone, there is a special site called a 'bonded area' where cargo can be warehoused without paying for import procedures, and where manufacturing, production and exhibition, etc., can take place. At this site, troublesome customs clearance procedures for shipping containers can all be completed in-house and packages shipped from here can be delivered anywhere in the country on the same day, so that all the complicated procedures from importing to shipping can be quickly shortened and simplified. Since various tax exemption measures are being applied, most of the goods can be sold at reasonable prices.

■In response to the prosperity of digital one-eye movie cameras, service goods have expanded

Since the latter half of 2008, digital movie making has become a movement, and along with its prosperity, the company has greatly increased the number of movie-making products it carries, and now rigs, mat boxes, follow-focus, remote controls and other filmmaking support products, as well as LED lighting, cranes, mini jibs, sliders, etc., are being produced in great numbers. Most of them are being imported from countries like America, as well as Taiwan, China and India. In the Asian market, there may be customers who are concerned about these goods being of poor-quality, but it has been said that the quality of precision, etc. in the products is being improved little by little.

'Our company’s products are made in places like China and India, but if you compare conditions now with those of several years ago, the precision of factory-made goods has been improving by leaps and bounds. Furthermore, since May of 2011, our company's Japanese staff has established a local staff office in Dungan, China, where our local production facility is located, performing quality control and direction production for our company's products. “Falconize”, the company that produces our company's original product “TEEDA”, also has a factory located there, where most of our company’s goods are manufactured. Because detailed, speedy quality control development is possible there, we expect our company's demands for precision to reflect this.' (Genzou Shimada, Tokyo Showroom’s Store Manager)

■Products made by a pro cameraman

Pro Machinery Dot Com's product line is made from reliable components, so it carries products that have been made by pro cameramen. Kunio Chiyano, Annette's representative, has a great deal of experience in New York from his career there as a pro cameraman, and even now he does a great deal of work in the advertising business doing things like taking product photos for famous beverage manufacturers. Every product is manufactured and imported under his direction, which is another thing that makes the company special.

Furthermore, the company aims to manufacture its products from the perspective of the cameramen who are the actual end users; the products are not just imported and sold simultaneously, but at the headquarters in Okinawa, each type of manufactured device is fully equipped, and the product's original specifications are customized. Pro Machinery Dot Com now carries more than 600 items. It is up to current filmmakers how they skillfully use these inexpensive products, but the number of places where Pro Machinery Dot Com is now able to offer those sorts of components is increasing.

Shimada says, 'Of course it's natural to use existing goods as-is, but because our company offers so many inexpensive products, there are cases where the end users have taken it on themselves to customize our products after buying them, using the products as a base to make their own specialized original tools. Right now there is approximately a 50/50 split between our customers who do still shots and those who do films, but the number of customers who deal with filmmaking has increased dramatically in recent years. There has also been an increase in the number of our customers who originally did still photography but who are now recording movies. Still cameras can be used as-is to record movies, so there has been an increasing demand for products that can switch back-and-forth between both functions. Among our company's products, the LED lights of all types, sliders, and other such products have been top sellers.'

■Launching a website to introduce products related to moving image photography

Starting this year, 'PROKIZAI.TV', a specialized website intended to introduce filmmaking products and distribute information regarding exhibitions within the filmmaking products market, has been launched, and is expanding the filmmaking market. Also, it has supported not just the photography tools market, but also product and company promotion at exhibitions as well as product PR backup, and it has also led to the creation of effective sales promotion tools such as the 'Jute EcoBag' made of natural Indian jute. From here on, the company aims to conduct various product exhibitions. They have plans to introduce many of their new product groups at InterBEE2011 as well.

Pro Machinery Dot Com
http://www.prokizai.com

PROKIZAI.TV
http://www.prokizai.tv

Jute EcoBag
http://www.asaecobag.com

Tokyo Showroom
http://www.prokizai.com/tsr/index.html#img/01.jpg
Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Yoyogi 3-31-4 ALCAZAR 1F
Tel: 03-6906-8280
Fax: 03-6906-8281
Hours of Operation: Monday-Saturday 10:00AM-7:00PM (Closed: Sundays, national holidays, New Year’s holiday, Obon)