Well, you sound a little less like a troll, but I'm not totally convinced. This isn't your typical forum and I don't think anyone here appreciates fake handles like the one you chose. It certainly won't help you get responses (unless you really are a troll and don't care about the quality of those responses). I suggest you change it (it might even be against the forum policies you agreed to).
Since you do sound a little more legit and since you are treading down a path which is similar to where I"ve come from, I throw you some thoughts. As one who owned and operated 120 children's studios across the US until I sold out in 2005 at well over a million kids per year and an average of 10 sheets per kid, we tried it all. Inkjet (no go especially then), dye sub and wet (silver hailde processing). I'm not sure what you mean as "dry lab" because the only thing I'm aware of using a name like that is a system by Noritsu that is a glorified Epson printer (literally using their heads and licensing their technology) built for volume but costing 10 times more.
Currently in the US, it will cost you about .90 to make an inkjet print on an Epson 4900, a little less on a 7900 if you use 700ml cartridges, assuming you can negotiate a really good paper and ink deal with your supplier.. This is without waste and with those volumes the main waste will be the paper you have to cut out between each 8x10 to end up with a borderless print. Printing that many prints borderless will lead to some issues, (I have one customer now who just switched to 4900s doing a very similar business) because of the overspray, but clogs will be minimal because of the high usage. But with waste factors you'll probably end up between .85 to 1.00 per 8x10. A recent thread here on LuLa implied that Epson paper in your country is 300% higher, which means it might be costing you much more to make a print.
On the other hand, using Fuji or Kodak silver halide paper on a Noritsu, I can make that same 8x10 for between .18 to .22, and with enough volume less because I can probably negotiate a special deal with the supplier (my cost on 8x10's when I sold out was more in the .12-13 range but silver prices have pushed that up since then).
Since you can develop a closed loop system (you control all variables from shooting to output) you can develop a system to crank prints through. You can probably do it in a way that the Noritsu will sort them for you, so faster packaging, so you'll save labor as well. One Noritsu can produce 100's of 8x10's per hour, far faster than any inkjet. You can also use multiple size papers so one machine can handle different print sizes.
so if the savings in Australia is anything similar, run the numbers. At just 1500 8x10s a week (this doesn't even factor in all you would save on all the larger prints) you would save approximately $1200 per week. You may have to start with inkjet because cost of entry is much cheaper, but if you leased a Noritsu on a 5 year lease that could do the 10x8's and 11x14's, you would probably pay about $1200 to $1500 a month for the lease, meaning you would might add as much as $3600 a month to your margins. (this is all based on US figures, no clue what the deal is in your country ... which means there could be some totally wild factor like an exorbitant government tax on photo processing) Add a 7900 to crank out the 16x20's (at the numbers your talking you could easily justify the 24" noritsu with is about a $130,000 machine).
But running the math is pretty simple, just find out what your costs are. All steps in creating a successful business model.
I will say just because a bunch of guys are doing it, it might not be as easy or profitable as you think ... sounds like it might be a pretty competitive business to break in to.
Good luck ...
