Q&A: Jessops' new owner Peter Jones to build £100m business within a year

Retail Week: Why did you buy Jessops?

Peter Jones: Jessops has been around for so long even my Dad who is nearly 80 knows the stores. So when I first heard that the iconic brand had gone I was quite surprised. I had thought it had weathered the storm and got through Christmas and I thought it was okay.

When I started to do some research I saw that it had a very, very high cost base, stores were completely underperforming, it had mismatched stores and it had a lot of debt, so it was a bit of a car crash.

I think the model is moving to collect in store. I also get that retail is struggling. But with the iconic brand and the right cost model and the most passionate people that work there I found there is so much that I can do and there is a place for a camera retailer.

The rise in people using smartphones in place of cameras was blamed in part for Jessops’ downfall, how will you tackle this trend?

What’s interesting is that the old Jessops fought against mobile phones for the wrong reasons. I’m in technology and so I sell a lot of that product. On my phone I can take a picture but if I want to print it out and have it at a size of 7x5 or 12x10 the quality of the picture isn’t good enough. On an SLR is it.

There will never be a day when a phone can replace a £4,000 camera.

I think there was too much talk in Jessops that camera phones will replace cameras in the future.

We will see that with the compact cameras at the lower end, people will ask, “do I want that?”. Some still do and so we’ll still offer them and we’ll make money by upselling and adding on accessories. But it’s not a high margin product for us, so if sales decline it’s not the end of the world. Where we will do well is offering the amateur photographer the best cameras in the world.

How will you make the business work?

We’ve picked store locations around the country that give us national coverage. I own Jessops 100% and I have put in circa £5m of cash into the business. We’ve made the footprint of the stores the same and we’ve introduced Apple-esque play tables. We’ve also brought kiosks into stores so customers will be able to print pictures. There will also be an academy in every store where people can take photography lessons.

It will be much more of an experience in store.

No-one on the high street can sell a camera the way Jessops can. With us you get the experience of dealing with a professional. We’ve got to get the pricing right which will be the same online and in store. And we have no debt base.

I must say there are no guarantees, though.

The stores and their features sound similar to the design of the Jessops flagships pre-collapse.

Yes, they are most like the Birmingham store, which is the largest at 6,000 sq ft. It will be very much about touching and feeling the product . Customers won’t see a huge change to stores but it wasn’t needed.

Will 36 stores be your limit?

We will have between 30 and 50 stores.

What are your goals for the retailer going forward?

Over the next 12 months, we-re looking at re-establishing it as a £100m business and I wouldn’t rule out some form of European expansion. I think the brand could work really well abroad. But for the moment I want to focus on the UK and get excellent service here.

How important is online for Jessops?

Online is vital for any business but particularly for Jessops. I would love to see in six months collect in store within an hour. But I realise I still have to re-establish a brand and build a business so I need to be a realist.

Why is click-and-collect so important?

It is vital for the retail experience to match it with online. Convenience is where it’s at. I do think Amazon will have problems in future. Although it is doing brilliantly now, the customer is getting wiser and if they can buy it online and collect it in store within an hour, they will.

How will you re-establish the brand?

We have changed the statement of the brand to say ‘Image is everything’. Because it’s really what we think Jessops is about. We will do some pretty tactical marketing and you might see TV adverts.

Are the suppliers on board?

Before Jessops had 22 suppliers and all 22 suppliers said they would support the business now. Every single one said they want to be there for Jessops.