Heard today that Jessops brand has been sold to Peter Jones

If that's true, will be interested to see what he does with it.

Yes I heard that last week. I think it's Peter Jones (and others) that have taken it on.

I'm sure I heard on the radio that he was looking into the 'name' Jessops as an online venture.

http://www.jessops.com/

It looks as if it'll soon be back with us. Let's hope prices are competitive and there's plenty of choice.

Unlike a lot of well known established 'online' photo stores that 'photographers' know and trust - I guess they have a street brand name that the general public know.

My parents for example only shop 'online' if they have no high street alternative.

Jessops would have been where they went if they needed a camera shop and I suspect now they have none - they would go straight to Jessops online now.

A good brand name is worth a lot. I can fully understand your comment about your parents Phil and suspect a lot of others would follow the same course.

Interesting!

What I'd like to see is them turn into the Richer Sounds for photographers (Richer Sounds sells last years models at really really low prices, as well as current models low - by buying in bulk).

I guess there's every good chance they could offer that kind of service Azz.

The other interesting thing is without the incumbent cost of physical shop space and costs which must be a huge investment (or dead weight), I wonder how much more competitive they are able to be simply as an online alternative.

Yeah, removing the cost of shops/staff should save them a huge deal. Almost everyone has heard of Jessops, and I guess the only reason they lost out to other online shops was price - the name itself was fairly trusted. Low prices usually wins - Amazon has proved that.

Picked this up today ....

Jessops: Scale of financial horror revealed

Amateur Photographer (AP) can reveal the full scale of Jessops' financial troubles and the amount Jessops owed its key suppliers.

Jessops owed Canon and Nikon around £20 million when it collapsed last month, with assets of just £3.4 million available to preferential creditors, it has emerged.

In total Jessops owed around £80m, including £42.6m to listed creditors.

Customers who had made deposits and not yet received goods, who returned goods and not received repayment – or who were due compensation – were owed £201,000.

Unredeemed customer gift cards totalled £869,000 and Jessops owed the taxman more than £1.3m.

The woeful figures are contained in records filed at Companies House, which have been seen by AP following a report published by This is Leicestershire earlier today.

The Notice of statement of affairs, submitted to Companies House by Jessops' administrators PwC, states that just £407,000 is available to unsecured creditors.

Canon (UK) Ltd was owed more than £16.4m and Nikon (UK) Ltd over £3.3m when administrators were called in on 9 January.

Major suppliers, including Canon and Nikon, had retention of title over unsold stock held by Jessops when it closed, meaning this should be returned to them as legal owners.

In Nikon's case, it seems most of the amount owed was held on a retention of title basis, according to the Companies House report.

Records show that Canon's security with Jessops, in terms of stock supplied, was £9.3m of the £16.4m it was owed.

Jessops owed Panasonic Marketing Europe nearly £4m; Sony UK Ltd around £3.2m; and Fujifilm (UK) Ltd about £2.6m.

Jessops' debt with Samsung amounted to £1.2m.

The collapsed chain owed its bank, HSBC, £28.7m and staff around £1.4m in wages.

Staff are treated as preferential creditors when a company falls into administration.

Customers who had signed up for Jessops Academy Courses, but not yet attended when the retailer shut its doors, were owed a total of £183,000.