Jessops in Administration

[domainseller200]

I disagree, a lot of people like to see and hold cameras in person before they commit to buying. Also, a lot of people walk in knowing they want a camera but expecting the staff to make recommendations rather than doing the research themselves.

IMO Jessops' problem was being undercut a lot by internet retailers, not making enough of a big deal about the bundles they did which were comparable to supermarket/online prices, and not diversifying/moving quickly enough to expand their products.

I agree with you totlaly Blossom. They were obviously a huge victim of showrooming also.

 

[anthony]

I disagree, a lot of people like to see and hold cameras in person before they commit to buying. Also, a lot of people walk in knowing they want a camera but expecting the staff to make recommendations rather than doing the research themselves.

IMO Jessops' problem was being undercut a lot by internet retailers, not making enough of a big deal about the bundles they did which were comparable to supermarket/online prices, and not diversifying/moving quickly enough to expand their products.

I disagree, there are no other national camera retailers getting a sales model right or otherwise. It has been a trend seen in every country the world over!

 

[Systreg]

You're thinking of Jewsons Kev

Yes, that's the one, thanks

 

[tifosi]

They've been pretty brutal about this. As with Game the suppliers have called the shots and forced the administrators to shut totally.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20992125

Play.com have also pulled out of retail. How that will affect them ( and affiliates I'm not certain). They have sent an email to affiliates though what it means in the long-term I'm not sure.

 

[Retired_member41]

Good riddance, never had a good experience in any of their stores since the 80's, 2012 being one of the worst, DigitalRev.com and the Digital Rev TV crew are all you need, plus their instructional videos are hilarious.

 

[disruptive]

HMV could be next!

These guys are trading on thin ice. Now in terms of market cap, worth just 0.5% of their peak 2005 value! Huge devaluation. It's a zombie - continuing to trade, but most people think its just a matter of time, before the money supply runs out.

It's a shame, but these Dinosaurs are so slow and un-nimble that the market has decided they don't deserve to stay in business.

 

[disruptive]

In fact, we could club together and buy a controlling portion of HMV, it's that dire. In terms of what the market value's at it, my friends building company makes more money and actually is not listed but if it were to list would be worth more than HMV and that's a team of just a few dozen people, but it makes profit.

Short this one to zero?

 

[Edwin]

HMV has just started running a huge sale with an extra 25% off a wide range of stock. I've seen speculation that this is to free up immediate working capital to keep the business ticking over that little bit longer.

 

[disruptive]

Certainly HMV need the cash flow. However the wolf is at the door and I do not know hoe much longer HMV can keep the wolf out.

Actually I was in the HMV store yesterday, never saw so many people in the shop in recent history. However I didn't see that much going through the tills. Fact is for many people, physical discs are a pain and actually have no hardware set-up to play bluray, dvd or the like anymore.

It's more a pain to *buy* a DVD than to *pirate* the DVD for many many people. Going against that trend, HMV have been struggling...

HMV is worth just £5m and shrinking. Soon, I'll be able to buy HMV in one of their knockdown sales. HMV is a zombie business.

 

[mdrussell]

I agree with you totlaly Blossom. They were obviously a huge victim of showrooming also.

And particularly with more people buying higher and higher end digital cameras, they should have embraced this more. Workshops showing off some of the new gear. Q&A sessions. Maybe even some training courses.

Shame to see them go. I bought a cleaning kit from them online back in Dec and it was a reasonable shopping experience.

 

[domainseller200]

An interesting read from a Jessops employee

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/01/weathering-the-jessops-administration/

 

[jasman]

I think there is more to this than has been reported. The BBC article linked above says "PwC was appointed administrator on Wednesday, and at the time said there might be some store closures. It came after talks this week between Jessops and its lender and suppliers broke down after a poor Christmas."

Elsewhere Rob Hunt joint administrator at PwC said that "the decision to shut down the business came after discussions with suppliers "around their support for ongoing trading", which was not forthcoming."

So blame has been laid at the feet of the anonymous "suppliers" rather than the named lender HSBC. But Why on Earth would suppliers want Jessops to go down the pan? As the UK's biggest camera chain they stand to lose one of their biggest sales channels. A lot to lose and nothing to gain - it doesn't make any sense. My guess is that the suppliers, aware of Jessops' troubled financial position were unwilling to supply stock on credit and insisted on payment up front and the lender refused. A workaround could easily have been reached with lender providing funds secured against the stock but evidently they prefered to shut them down.

This is reminiscent of what happened with Farepak when "Mr Justice Peter Smith said evidence showed the lender wanted the business to fall into administration"

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...-FOCUS-Failure-Farepak--HBOS-firing-line.html

 

[cm1975]

I disagree, a lot of people like to see and hold cameras in person before they commit to buying. Also, a lot of people walk in knowing they want a camera but expecting the staff to make recommendations rather than doing the research themselves.

IMO Jessops' problem was being undercut a lot by internet retailers, not making enough of a big deal about the bundles they did which were comparable to supermarket/online prices, and not diversifying/moving quickly enough to expand their products.

The problem there is that they wouldn't have charged for the advice. What's to stop someone going in getting the advice, then walking out of the shop and buying online for a lower price?

 

[tifosi]

An interesting read from a Jessops employee

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/01/weathering-the-jessops-administration/

Great article. The comments from the florist below about business rents & rates pretty sum it up as well. Commercial landlords are essentially screwing businesses off the high street and all the government is doing (and probably can in a free market) is to offer money to new businesses that they will not be able to affort to pay back in a month of sundays because they're just about breaking even!

Councils should get off their arses and have power to set fair rents within catchment areas... but all they do is put up the price of parking and screw customers as well.

RIP the high-street.

 

[retired_member34]

There were some very interesting articles in the Sunday papers regarding Jessops. It seems that both Canon and Nikon gave them special prices and special credit terms on their goods and even paid for shop refurbishments, to allow showrooming to happen (as they put it, "to maintain a presence in shop windows"). Everyone knows the best place to buy a camera is online, but it is still in the manufacturers interests to have a place where they can be inspected by the public.

However, when they promoted Martyn Everett to chairman he tried to take an even tougher line with the Japanese, who reacted badly. Nikon tightened its credit terms in the run up to christmas and so starved Jessops of cash.

 

[Aegean]

Councils should get off their arses and have power to set fair rents within catchment areas... but all they do is put up the price of parking and screw customers as well.

RIP the high-street.

Its the rates too. In inverness, the rates were so high that the only shops in the town centre that could afford to stay there were charity shops, which are exempt from rates. Everything moved out to the retail parks. This council policy essentially killed the centre of town. In Dingwall, a lot of folk tried to blame the new Tesco for the demise of the little high street there, but actually the council rates killed that street too.

 

[tifosi]

How long before everything is bought online and the salesperson actually comes roud to your house! Now that's a novel idea...

 

[RobM]

How long before everything is bought online and the salesperson actually comes roud to your house! Now that's a novel idea...

That's what google want to do - you'll have someone shouting ads through your letterbox Seriously though from what I have heard about Jessops this is not really too surprising. Companies need to wake up to the online world I think.

 

[anthony]

...Companies need to wake up to the online world I think.

A top line trading name which should have known years ago that it's future was only ever going to exist online.

Expect to see the name bought up for that very reason, it is the only asset the business really has now!

 

[figleaf007]

But do people buy from a name once it has gone into administratino and they have taken people's vouchers and goodwill with them? I looked the other day and saw the Woolworths website is till running, but who buys from them?