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Jessops becomes
the 1st High Street casualty of 2013!
IT might be an unlucky
year,13, and not a very lucky year for many on the High Street,
for already 2013 has had its first major chain to fall into
administration. On Wednesday, 9 January 2013, the well known UK
High Street camera retailer, Jessop’s, broke the news that it
had gone into administration, with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
appointed as the administrator. The store chain has faced
competition from online retailers in recent years, and has found
it hard to change to the new digital market, but it was not just
the online competition that was hitting it. The market has
changed; amateur photographers are now moving more and more to
smart phones and, because of the move from film to digital
prints, less processing is taking place. With the professional
photographers’ end of the market, many may have found that the
Jessop range had become too small and not only have they often
moved to the many online suppliers, but also to many smaller
niche specialists, who were cheaper and often had more extensive
ranges. The chain was founded in Leicester during 1935,
but recently, after increasing its shops, it found that its
market was being reduced further still as the supermarkets moved
in on the sector. The result of all this has been a market
collapse in this sector. Jessop’s, which has 192 stores in the
UK, and employs about 2,000 staff, is now bracing for the worst,
as administrators said that it was "inevitable that some
of the stores will have to close." In recent years, the
chain had already suffered problems, for in 2009, Jessop’s
managed to avoid administration by agreeing a debt for equity
swap with its lender, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking
Corporation, better known as HSBC. The joint administrator and
partner at PwC, Rob Hunt, told the press that:- "Our most
pressing task is to review the company's financial position and
hold discussions with its principal stakeholders to see if the
business can be preserved. Trading in the stores is hoped to
continue today, but is critically dependent on these ongoing
discussions. However, in the current economic climate, it is
inevitable that there will be store closures." Online,
this week the jessops.com website has started saying:-
"Please note that the Jessop’s website will not currently
process orders, however you are able to read product
descriptions, customer reviews and watch videos. Our Photo
service website continues to trade as normal. You will be
pleased to know that you can process your photographic work by
clicking onto the Photo Printing link on our main menu."
Also, we have been told that Jessop’s stores will not
be honouring customer vouchers nor be accepting any returned
goods. But supermarket Tesco has said that they will give a full
refund to any customer who has recently exchanged Club card
vouchers for tokens to spend with Jessop’s. If you are one of
the staff, or are affected in any way by this announcement,
please do let us know by emailing us via:-
news24@southportreporter.com.
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