Jessops camera stores to close with loss of 1,370 jobs
Jessops has faced competition from online retailers
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High Street camera retailer Jessops is to shut all of its stores, resulting in the loss of about 1,370 jobs.
Administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), appointed this week, said all 187 stores in the UK would shut at the end of trading on Friday.
More jobs would be lost at the head office in Leicester, it added.
Jessops became the first High Street casualty of 2013, after a raft of firms fell into administration in 2012, including Comet and Clinton Cards.
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.
The camera chain was founded in Leicester in 1935 by Frank Jessop.
In recent years, it has been hit by increasing competition from supermarkets and internet retailers.
Rob Hunt, joint administrator at PwC, said it was an "extremely sad day for Jessops and its employees".
He added that the decision to shut down the business came after discussions with suppliers "around their support for ongoing trading", which was not forthcoming.
"The stock will be collected over the coming days and returned to a central warehouse. It will be returned to suppliers if they are entitled to it. As a consequence of the closure, Jessops is no longer able to accept returned product from customers," Mr Hunt said.
"We will continue to ensure that employees are paid as they assist us during the closure."
He told the BBC that the closure announcement was "a horrible end to a very intensive couple of days".
In 2009, Jessops managed to avoid administration by agreeing a debt for equity swap with its lender, HSBC, that saw it taken off the stock market.
All 187 store locations of  camera retailer are closing in the United Kingdom today. The business, which went into  earlier this week, is to leave its workforce of approximately 1370 jobless. While staff at the business' top office in , in central England, are not being made redundant with immediate effect, they are in the next few weeks to lose their positions.

 (PwC), the firm declared administrator of Jessops two days ago, has said an examination of the company indicated it was no longer capable of operating successfully. "It is apparent that we cannot continue to trade", said joint administrator Rob Hunt of PwC, "and as a result we have had to make the difficult decision".

PwC say no Jessops branches will open tomorrow and people who have bought items from their businesses will not be able to return them. However, stock "will be returned to suppliers if they are entitled to it", according to Hunt.

Hunt said PwC "will continue to ensure that employees are paid as they assist us during the closure" at Jessops. In a comment to the BBC, Hunt described the situation at Jessops as "a horrible end to a very intensive couple of days".


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