Yahoo Finance TV Dragon Breathes New Life Into Jessops
TV Dragon Peter Jones has told Sky News he is taking a risk by relaunching collapsed high street camera chain Jessops but will give it his "best shot".
The entrepreneur snapped up the brand when the company went into administration in January with debts of more than £80m, leaving almost 1,500 staff out of work when its 187 stores were shut.
Jessops was then a casualty of not only its business model but of the consumer spending squeeze combined with stiff online competition and the boom in camera phones which hit demand for digital cameras.
It was the first of several chains to fail after Christmas, which resulted in more than 6,000 retail jobs being lost.
HMV, Blockbuster and Republic were among the brands that fell into administration.
Mr Jones has invested £4m in the relaunch of Jessops, which will have a heavy focus on boosting its online presence to catch up with the soaring growth in internet retailing.
Products sold over the web will be price-matched to the stores - something that did not happen under Jessops' previous ownership.
The entrepreneur has taken on hundreds of staff, many of them former Jessops employees, and will open the first of more than 30 stores today in London and Birmingham.
Two Jessops stores will open today in London's Oxford Street and Birmingham, with four others opening over the Easter weekend in Manchester, Aberdeen, High Wycombe and St Albans.
The stores had been reconfigured, Mr Jones said, to create a more interactive, customer-friendly experience while each site will include a Jessops Academy, offering photography courses and training.
"We've got a real chance of making it a success... The big thing about Jessops is the fact there is not another retailer in the country that has such experienced passionate staff when it comes to camera equipment sales... That makes a big difference."
He concluded: "We have to keep it lean and mean."
Mr Jones made his fortune after setting up the Phones International Group, which he sold a part of in 2011.
He has appeared on the BBC show Dragons' Den since it started in 2005.
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