TORONTO -- Photography chain Blacks is shuttering all of its 59 stores in Canada after 85 years of selling pictures, albums and frames to capture treasured family moments.
Parent company Telus said the closures will take effect Aug. 8 and affect about 485 employees, most of whom work in Ontario.
In Windsor, nine people will lose their jobs. The Blacks store in Devonshire Mall has three full-time and six part-time employees.
"Technological innovations have changed the way Canadians take and share photographs, with fewer of us using retail photo outlets," company spokeswoman Luiza Staniec said in a statement.
"Despite the positive momentum and financial improvements our Blacks team has delivered over the last year, we have been unable to realize profitable growth and it would take considerable investment to adapt Blacks to ongoing change."
Staniec said an unspecified number of the laid-of employees will be offered jobs at Telus or Koodo head offices, as well as at retail outlets or call centres, while others would be offered a "transition package."
Telus (TSX:T) spokeswoman Luiza Staniec says despite financial improvements over the last year, the company has been unable to turn a profit because of technological innovations that have changed the way people take and share photos.
Headquartered in Toronto, Blacks was founded in 1930. Since then it has changed hands several times.
Telus Corp. (TSX:T) bought Blacks in September 2009 for $28 million from ReichmannHauer Capital Partners, which had purchased the chain two years earlier for an undisclosed price.
In July 1993, Fuji Photo Film Canada purchased Blacks and its 210 stores for $65 million from Scott's Hospitality, which was primarily a food business.
With files from CTV Windsor.
