When Profoto was founded in 1968, Conny Dufgran and Eckhard Heine had one ambition – to create the world’s best photo flash for the world’s top photographers. Profoto’s products were used early on by celebrity fashion photographers and have continued to attract a loyal following ever since.
The fact that Profoto’s products began to be used all over the world in rental studios used by the world’s leading fashion photographers facilitated Profoto’s early expansion into Japan in 1970 and the United States in 1992.
Anders Hedebark was appointed CEO in 1997 and under his leadership the company has continued its expansion. In 2001, the company started subsidiaries in Germany, France and the United Kingdom and then continued to expand with a subsidiary in Japan in 2005. In 2009, Petter Sylvan was appointed CFO and the company started a new growth journey. This was based on a strategic initiative to increase its focus on innovation and the development of a number of new products.
Through these and other product launches, Profoto has successfully managed to expand into existing and new product categories and customer segments, including photographers working on location, with natural light and e-commerce.
In 2017, Hans Eckerström became Chairman of the Board and also a shareholder in Profoto. Under Hans Eckerström’s leadership, the process began to prepare the company for a future listing on Nasdaq Stockholm and a generational shift in ownership as Conny Dufgran has today reached the age of 88 years old.
In 2020, the company continued its innovation work in the area of smartphone photography and the online store profoto.com was fully expanded to the EU, UK, North America and Japan to reach new customer groups.
On July 1, 2021, Profoto was listed on Nasdaq Stockholm as a logical and important step in the development at the same time as it enabled one of the founders, Conny Dufgran to sell a part of his ownership in Profoto.
In 2022, Profoto made its first acquisition, StyleShoots, as part of the strategy to expand in the fast-growing automated e-commerce photography market. StyleShoots is a market leader in comprehensive solutions for e-commerce photography in the fashion area.
Since the start, Profoto’s operations have been running through changing eras and technological shifts – analogous to digital, studio photography for on-site photography and DSLR camera for mirrorless camera – and has nevertheless continued to be the market leader by consistently delivering products with the ambition to give perfect light in every picture.