Jessops (photographic retailer)

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Jessops plc

Type	Public (LSE: JSP)
Founded	1935
Headquarters	Leicester (HQ)
Key people	CEO: Chris Langley Chairman: Gavin Simonds
Industry	Retail
Products	Photographic Equipment
Revenue	£327 million GBP (2005) [1]
Employees	2981 (Dec 2005)
Slogan	Your pictures. Our Passion
Website	www.jessops.com

Jessops is Britain's largest specialist photographic retailer, with over 300 stores nationwide. Many branches contain mini-labs, offering one hour processing. All branches now have facilities for digital processing through self-service kiosks.

Frank Jessop opened "Jessop of Leicester" in 1935 as a specialist photographic retailer. The company expanded to major towns and cities, with flagship 'World Camera Centres' in Birmingham, on London's New Oxford Street and on Deansgate in Manchester. The 200th store opened in Durham in July 2001.

The Jessops catalogue, available free from the stores, is traditionally regarded by amateurs as the enthusiast's bible. It is usually released quarterly.

Alan Jessop, Frank's son, sold the firm in 1996 in a management buy-out. ABN AMRO paid £116m for the company in 2002, and then floated the company on the London Stock Exchange in October 2004 Yahoo Finance.

Jessops remains based in Leicester, with head office on Scudamore Road. In 2004, the main warehouse was relocated to Weedon, Northamptonshire as the warehouse in Leicester was considered too small. This resulted in most of the staff being made redundant.

Jessops also sell via their website, which boasts an average of 25 million hits a month.

William Rollason, non-executive director and chairman of the rumuneration committee for Jessops – and last CEO of European Home Retail – has been implicated in the October 2006 Farepak scandal.[2]