Jessops files to appoint administrators.

It might just be so that they can stop paying their landlords rent for a period rather than a full-blown shutdown. One of those 'arrangements' that big companies on the high street seem to have used a lot in the last couple of years. (Not that they have a HUGE amount of shops anyway now)
 
Is this the third time in the past few years? They've become irrelevant sadly, they don't have any shops anymore and they wouldn't be top of my list to look at online either.

Remember years ago they had a good offer on new Canon EOS 40D bodies. It was a little more expensive than elsewhere but came with something like a free bag, CF card and spare battery. Worth a punt I thought. So headed into my local (long since closed) branch, which had massive posters in the window proclaiming the aforementioned offer. Only to be told "sorry, we only had one body to sell at that price. You can have this ex demo one with a spare battery though". To which I promptly walked out and went and bought the camera online.
 
According to Companies House website they haven’t filed their accounts for the FY ending April 2019 either. Turnover was £120m in FY 2018 and it was profitable so something has gone badly wrong.....I suspect the rent and rates on their remaining retail stores dragged them down. Imagine it will come back as a web/mail order operation only. Their used service Camera Jungle offers good pricing on selling kit too.
 
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I never really got on with Jessops- the staff in my local branch ( Taunton) had little or no knowledge of my choosen system ( Sony) they seem to want to push Canon/Nikon

the shop closed well before the Dragon became involved

Les :)
 
When Peter Jones first took over they did seem to up there game a little bit, there online prices were a little more competitive and my local shop anyway had a lot more readily available stock.

That didn't seem to last long though and the last time I visited my local basically they had stock of next to nothing other then entry level stuff and even the display stands looked very empty and that was before the lockdown.

Pity to see them struggle but the in-store set up was pretty poor and having chatted to a few of their staff they were pretty much keeping the doors open from print kiosk sales. Never good to see a well known brand go but the writing has been on the wall for a considerable time, they never moved with the times and the buying experience there was pretty poor compared to the likes of W.E.X.

There online business isn't great either, lots of delivery issues and stock problems.
 
I worked there late 90's into the naughties and it was a proper camera shop and sold everything for photography, then slowly it went wrong for them. Ultimately they opened too many stores and grew too big for their boots and this caused their downfall. Peter Jones came in but turned it into a Currys / PC World. The range of stock they sold was massively reduced, it was just main brand manufactures and the new staff didn't know their way around a camera, well, when I popped into my local one a few years back the sales assistant was getting the manual out to explain Av, Tv, M etc! Now I see they sell a range of non photographic items also so again diluting down the business. I know that's probably a sweeping statement and doesn't cover all staff but definitely covers the staff in Cardiff.

It's a shame as it was once a great business. Luckily they didn't buy all the indie stores out and there are still some great photographic stores out there.
 
f/2.8 said:
When Peter Jones first took over they did seem to up there game a little bit, there online prices were a little more competitive and my local shop anyway had a lot more readily available stock.

That didn't seem to last long though and the last time I visited my local basically they had stock of next to nothing other then entry level stuff and even the display stands looked very empty and that was before the lockdown.

Pity to see them struggle but the in-store set up was pretty poor and having chatted to a few of their staff they were pretty much keeping the doors open from print kiosk sales. Never good to see a well known brand go but the writing has been on the wall for a considerable time, they never moved with the times and the buying experience there was pretty poor compared to the likes of W.E.X.

There online business isn't great either, lots of delivery issues and stock problems.
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i worked in photographic retail in the late 80’s for a year (Cine Equipments in Stratford Upon Avon no less). Peter Rowlands who was the MD inherited the business which was a chain of 5 shops from his Father. He expanded the number of stores then sold out to Jessops in the 90’s. In the store I was in we had weekly training sessions and got to play with the new kit when it came in.

There was a Jessops here in High Wycombe but I agree it didn’t hold a lot of stock, mostly accessories, some drones and a few lower end DSLR’s. It did have a lot of compact cameras though and a good selection of bags and the like, plus the photo print kiosks. The last batch of staff in their weren’t trained to the right level although some of their predecessors were right on their game.

Their model is very different to WEX and is different again to LCE.

Jessops stores only sell new kit, with the used stuff being handled by Camera Jungle who would never answer their phones but would answer an e mail in minutes and offered some very good prices for selling used kit to them. WEX and LCE have used kit in their stores and I think that makes a difference in terms of creating footfall. Camera Jungle never got the publicity it needs to take on the likes of MPB either. Big money to be made on used kit, MPB have a gross margin of over 40%. Not being able to do a seamless trade in deal will also have hindered them. Also, Jessops were just too expensive on the likes of memory cards and never had them in stock in the shops. Sales opportunities lost.....Argos down the road usually has them on the shelf And Amazon will stick them through your letterbox next day.

For the 2018 FY, Jessops turnover was £120m so they must have been doing something right as it was profitable In that year. I have used their mail order service and not had a problem, my only comment is that Camera Jungle were a bit slow to payout when I sold them some kit earlier this year, but they offered me more money than anyone else.

I imagine they will get the rents on the stores massively slashed or go web/mail order only. Works for Ffordes and others.....although Ffordes do actually have a retail store I think.
 
Andrew Smith said:
i worked in photographic retail in the late 80’s for a year (Cine Equipments in Stratford Upon Avon no less). Peter Rowlands who was the MD inherited the business which was a chain of 5 shops from his Father. He expanded the number of stores then sold out to Jessops in the 90’s. In the store I was in we had weekly training sessions and got to play with the new kit when it came in.

There was a Jessops here in High Wycombe but I agree it didn’t hold a lot of stock, mostly accessories, some drones and a few lower end DSLR’s. It did have a lot of compact cameras though and a good selection of bags and the like, plus the photo print kiosks. The last batch of staff in their weren’t trained to the right level although some of their predecessors were right on their game.

Their model is very different to WEX and is different again to LCE.

Jessops stores only sell new kit, with the used stuff being handled by Camera Jungle who would never answer their phones but would answer an e mail in minutes and offered some very good prices for selling used kit to them. WEX and LCE have used kit in their stores and I think that makes a difference in terms of creating footfall. Camera Jungle never got the publicity it needs to take on the likes of MPB either. Big money to be made on used kit, MPB have a gross margin of over 40%. Not being able to do a seamless trade in deal will also have hindered them. Also, Jessops were just too expensive on the likes of memory cards and never had them in stock in the shops. Sales opportunities lost.....Argos down the road usually has them on the shelf And Amazon will stick them through your letterbox next day.

For the 2018 FY, Jessops turnover was £120m so they must have been doing something right as it was profitable In that year. I have used their mail order service and not had a problem, my only comment is that Camera Jungle were a bit slow to payout when I sold them some kit earlier this year, but they offered me more money than anyone else.

I imagine they will get the rents on the stores massively slashed or go web/mail order only. Works for Ffordes and others.....although Ffordes do actually have a retail store I think.
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WEX stores may be different where you are. My local WEX only ever has a very small cabinet of used equipment for sale. Must stuff they take in as trade ins gets sent to the main warehouse for sale on the website. So it doesn’t seem a priority for them or a major driver of footfall although I would imagine having the option of trading in equipment in-store drives people into there. My local has always been a relatively busy shop though even when it was Calunet.
 
Jessops had their peak back in the 70/80's. When I started in photography about 1973, there were mainly small local photography shops. Jessops then started up their mail order business from their main warehouse in Leicester. In 1979 a friend and I wanted to invest in a set of kit to process colour film and prints so it was a major purchase. We actually drove to Leicester to buy the items not only much cheaper than the local shops who did not stock most of what we needed anyway. Jessops did well and many local shops could not compete. Instead of moving to on-line, Jessops then opened lots of local shops which led to there demise. They just could not get the right balance between shops and on-line. When Peter Jones took over, he did close a lot of shops. My wife had refused to go into Jessops because the staff were so rude. Anyway she wanted a new Nikon digital compact and Jessops had the best price so we visited the only remaining local Jessops and my wife bought the camera and a few accessories. On the way home, she mentioned that the member of staff who served was a model of helpfulness and politeness was the same person who used to be so rude to customers. He had been retrained by Peter Jones. It is still a shame to see them go.

Dave
 
Andrew Smith said:
According to Companies House website they haven’t filed their accounts for the FY ending April 2019 either. Turnover was £120m in FY 2018 and it was profitable so something has gone badly wrong.....I suspect the rent and rates on their remaining retail stores dragged them down. Imagine it will come back as a web/mail order operation only. Their used service Camera Jungle offers good pricing on selling kit too.
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The net profit looks too small to have any significant impact with controlling their working capital problem. It's possible they've simply got too much debt to manage and not enough time to pull through; the pandemic has probably been brutal for them. I suspect it will be rent related, in particular to stores which are not profitable. The subsidiary Jessops Europe has two recently filed CCJ's, one for £35,160 and another for £326,878. They haven't made very much profit compared to the group company.

I would hate to see them go, but I reckon a big change is needed. They could look to move inside larger stores, similar to what Argos has done with their owners Sainsburys and also grab consistent passing traffic. Or maybe a full rebrand or something, but online does seem to be the way of things now so maybe just have a few stores at keys locations around the country instead of the high street presence.
 
I think even before the pandemic there were signs that not all was well. You can usually tell when they haven't actually got any cameras in their stores.
 
gman said:
The net profit looks too small to have any significant impact with controlling their working capital problem. It's possible they've simply got too much debt to manage and not enough time to pull through; the pandemic has probably been brutal for them. I suspect it will be rent related, in particular to stores which are not profitable. The subsidiary Jessops Europe has two recently filed CCJ's, one for £35,160 and another for £326,878. They haven't made very much profit compared to the group company.

I would hate to see them go, but I reckon a big change is needed. They could look to move inside larger stores, similar to what Argos has done with their owners Sainsburys and also grab consistent passing traffic. Or maybe a full rebrand or something, but online does seem to be the way of things now so maybe just have a few stores at keys locations around the country instead of the high street presence.
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In Edinburgh since they've "come back" they've actually move to a click and colllect type setup within one of the Sainsbury's I think if prices were right that would work fine.
 
f/2.8 said:
WEX stores may be different where you are. My local WEX only ever has a very small cabinet of used equipment for sale. Must stuff they take in as trade ins gets sent to the main warehouse for sale on the website. So it doesn’t seem a priority for them or a major driver of footfall although I would imagine having the option of trading in equipment in-store drives people into there. My local has always been a relatively busy shop though even when it was Calunet.
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LCE holds the secondhand stock in the individual stores but they add it to the company wide website. Seems to work for them. I have purchased used kit from LCE without a problem. Of course, LCE answer their phones, something that Camera Jungle doesn’t do...... when I buy used equipment at like to ring the vendor and ask about the product, particularly lenses to see if there is any dust etc. Ffordes are another good supplier of used kit who answer their phone And like to chat with their customers. Web ordering is all well and good, but you still need that human touch and sales skills to maximise your revenues.......
 
Yes, LCE and Ffordes are my 2 favourites.
Both answer the phone and their staff are knowledgeable.
 
No surprise. I used the latest Jessops once and Camera Jungle once. Both experiences were poor.
 
I did get my last lens from Camera jungle - it was a fair price and got 10 percent cashback - although it took a year to get it.
 
We have a Jessops in Derby - did use it a few years back but only really use LCE as its so good and has a great turn around of stock - they also look after repeat customers :)
 
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