Camera retailer Jessops goes into administration (From Streatham Guardian)

Camera retailer Jessops goes into administration

4:51pm Wednesday 9th January 2013 in News

WIMB: Camera retailer Jessops goes into administration

High Street camera retailer Jessops has announced it has gone into administration.

Accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been appointed as the troubled company's administrator.

The firm, which was founded in Leicester in 1935, has been struggling in recent years because of increasing competition from supermarkets and internet retailers.

Nationwide Jessops has 192 stores and employs more than 2,000 staff.

PwC confirmed that while Jessops was a "well-known brand with a strong reputation for service", it had suffered a significant decline in 2012, which was projected to continue in 2013.

It is not known at present exactly which stores will close, but the administrators have said it was inevitable that some would shut.

Rob Hunt, joint administrator and partner at PwC, told the BBC: "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."

In a blow to current customers, PwC has announced that at present Jessops would not honour customer vouchers or accept returned goods.

The company narrowly avoided going into administration in 2009 by agreeing a last-minute deal with HSBC.

Jessops has stores in the following boroughs:
Croydon, Sutton, Wimbledon, Wandsworth, Epsom, Elmbridge, Kingston, Richmond and Lambeth