Jessops back in focus as recovery plan rolls on with leap in like-for-like sales over Christmas

Camera retailer Jessops yesterday signalled further progress in its recovery plan as it reported a 3 per cent rise in like-for-like sales over Christmas.

The chain, which secured its survival with a rescue deal in September 2009, said it maintained deliveries in the extreme weather by ensuring all stores were fully stocked and hiring local firms with smaller vans to reach customers.

It said the actions limited lost sales to between 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent in the six-week period to January 9, while business also soared in the final week before Christmas and between Boxing Day and January 1.

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Online sales leapt as snowed-in shoppers turned to the internet, accounting for up to 25 per cent of all sales in the first four weeks of the festive season.

Jessops added that like-for-like sales throughout the final quarter of 2010 rose by 5.3 per cent. Jessops has been revamping stores and boosting its online business as part of efforts to get the business back on track after coming close to collapse.

It rode the boom in demand for digital cameras, but struggled when high street and internet competitors muscled into the market. A major overhaul in 2007 and a swathe of store closures was not enough keep the business on track and it became swamped in debt, leading to the 2009 debt-for-equity survival deal that left it largely in the hands of its bank.

HSBC took a 47 per cent stake, while the Government's Pension Protection Fund took a 33 per cent holding to safeguard staff pension payments, with the remaining 20 per cent held by management.

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Trevor Moore – appointed chief executive in September 2009 to lead the turnaround – said the measures have helped customers "rediscover Jessops".

The group is rolling out completely new formats across its 206 shops, with a new black store frontage and so-called play tables that allow customers to look at cameras, in a move away from traditional cabinet displays.

Jessops now has 37 stores under this new format, but is also relocating and refreshing other stores until it can complete the "black" store roll out. A further 20 outlets will be converted this year, while 10 new stores will be opened and 55 shops will also get a refresh.

The company's history dates back more than 75 years, with the firm beginning life in 1935 when Frank Jessop opened his first shop in Leicester.