Birth of a notion takes millionaire to Las Vegas

Nov 13 2008 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

A PROMINENT businessman who became the father of price comparison websites a decade ago is targeting the US market with his latest online venture.

Millionaire entrepreneur Gary Hosmer aims to cash in on the huge demand in North America for school year books and memorial books through his new website, Photover.com

The site, which is the product of two years of development and £250,000 in investment, allows groups of people to work together using online tools to create photo books.

The company, at Gosforth, Newcastle, then publishes and distributes the books, working in partnership with printing firms in the North East.

Mr Hosmer and his business partners Richard Airey and Simon Fisher have set up a satellite office in Texas and also plan to launch the service in France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Mr Hosmer said: “We exhibited at a funeral show in Las Vegas and got a tremendous amount of inquiries and interest there because it was something a bit different.

“We’ve already done all of our big spending to set the business up and now expect to build up the orders.”

Mr Hosmer made millions in 1994 when he sold his engineering firm Nitrix to North East filtration group Domnick Hunter.

In 1999 he went on to set up price comparison website easyquote.com, long before the emergence of similar sites.

Today the site is run from Mr Hosmer’s office in Regent Centre and remains one of the only independent operations of its kind.

He said: “We just run it as a small business now all those competitors have come along and now we have got into this bigger market.”

The entrepreneur’s latest business was inspired by Mr Hosmer’s daughter, who wanted to make her own school year book but found it expensive and difficult to involve her friends in the creative process.