All 187 Jessops stores are to close this evening, only two days after the firm went into administration.
The high street photography retailer appointed PriceWaterhouseCoopers to take over the day-to-day running of the firm on Wednesday.
Today, the administrators announced that the stores will close with immediate effect, with no fire sale of cameras and other photography equipment.
Opinion
Poor service killed Jessops, not the internet
“The stock will be collected over the coming days and returned to a central warehouse,” Rob Hunt, joint administrator, told the BBC. “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.
“This is an extremely sad day for Jessops and its employees. We will continue to ensure that employees are paid as they assist us during the closure.”
The store closures will come at the cost of about 1,370 jobs. The Jessops website was still operational at the time of publication.
Jessops narrowly avoided administration three years ago, when HSBC took over 47% of the business in return for writing off £34 million of debt.
Still, the company lost £900,000 in the year to January 2012 amid consumers migrating from compact cameras to smartphones, and strong competition from online retailers.
Earlier this week, Play.com announced the closure of its UK retail business.
Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.
