Jessops paints a rosier picture after turnaround strategy

A SWEEPING overhaul has taken Jessops, the camera retailer, back from the brink and helped customers "rediscover" its stores, the group's chief executive said yesterday.

Trevor Moore, who was appointed to the top post in September 2009 to lead a turnaround of the flagging chain, was speaking as the group reported a solid 3 per cent rise in like-for-like sales over Christmas.

It 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.

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

Online sales leapt as snowed-in shoppers turned to the internet, accounting for up to a quarter of all sales in the first four weeks of the festive season. Like-for-like sales throughout the final quarter of 2010 rose by 5.3 per cent.

The firm was at the forefront of the digital photography revolution but struggled when big supermarkets and internet competitors muscled into the market.

A string of store closures was not enough to keep the business on track and it became swamped in debt, leading to a 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 chunk held by management.

Moore said the measures have helped customers "rediscover Jessops", but cautioned: "It will take a good number of years to return Jessops to being a good business again."

The firm is giving its 206 shops a new look, launching a black store frontage and so-called play tables that allow customers to look at cameras, in a move away from traditional cabinet displays.

• Strong demand for smartphones is helping Carphone Warehouse overcome tough economic conditions, it said yesterday as it nudged up its full-year profit forecast.

Chief executive Roger Taylor said sales of mobile phones based on Google's Android software had been the highlight of festive trading for the company.