Online electricals retailer AO World has acquired the troubled camera retailer Jessops from Dragons' Den star Peter Jones. The deal, completed on Thursday, includes Jessops' remaining seven stores across the UK, for an undisclosed sum funded from AO's existing cash resources.
Expanding beyond white goods
The acquisition supports AO's strategy of expanding into adjacent categories, giving customers more reasons to shop with AO and increasing its share of wallet. AO said Jessops brings a trusted brand and specialist expertise in cameras and optical technology, while its re-commerce business, Camera Jungle, is highly complementary to AO's existing musicMagpie operations.
Camera Jungle specialises in buying and selling secondhand digital cameras, lenses, and photography accessories. In December 2024, AO bought musicMagpie, which deals in used smartphones, tablets, consoles, video games, CDs and DVDs.
Financial performance and history
Jessops posted a 6.5% rise in revenues to £19.8m last year, and made a pre-tax loss of £1m, down from £1.17m in 2024, according to its most recently filed accounts at Companies House. Founded in 1935 by Frank Jessop in Leicester, Jessops has called in administrators three times over the past two decades.
Jones's PJ Investment Group bought the chain out of administration in 2013, and Jessops was left with 17 shops in 2021 after being hit hard by Covid lockdown restrictions. Jones, who made most of his £400m fortune selling mobile phones, bought the Jessops brand in January 2013 to run it as a purely online retailer, and did not buy its 187 stores. More than 1,370 staff were made redundant.
Leadership comment
John Roberts, AO's founder and chief executive, said: "I am delighted to welcome Jessops into the AO family and look forward to growing the existing business as well as integrating the category into the wider AO business." Roberts started AO in 2000 after making a £1 bet in a pub with a friend that he could change the way white goods were bought over the internet.
The Guardian has contacted Jones for comment.
