Jessops

A new vision for Jessops

Photography specialist retailer Jessops finished 2015 with a bang after marking the opening of its 50^th location, rounding off a successful year of expansion. In December alone, stores were unveiled in Exeter, Cambridge and Bristol.

Jessops 50^th site, located at Sainsbury’s Emersons Green, Bristol, comprises a concession shop that officially opened its doors to Christmas shoppers on Thursday 17^th December.

Other key expansions for Jessops in 2015 include a new flagship store in Norwich, a welcomed return to Preston, and the successful partnership with Sainsbury’s that has seen concessions rise to 11 supermarket destinations – with more in the pipeline. ‘Project Saxon’ is the title for Jessops new vision for its recent and future stores.

According to Scott Worger, Retail Operations Director at Jessops:

“Project Saxon is taking place in numerous locations across the UK. Jessops now has a grand total of 50 stores nationwide, located on high streets and in shopping centres in addition to concessions inside Sainsbury’s stores.

“The project is in place to ensure that we provide a store network to fulfil customer demands and the ever changing needs of the market – these new stores provide a customer journey to meet these needs.

“An additional 22 stores have been opened since 2014 with further works scheduled in 2016 encompassing both High Street expansion and Shopping Centre locations.”

Main contractor Clements have worked alongside architectural company Fusion, and design company Liberation, to deliver the new stores as part of the overall project.

The stores at Cambridge and Exeter boast new services including the Jessops Rental Service, a Trade-In offering and Sensor Cleaning to ensure images are kept picture perfect.

“From the day the company began trading in 2013 this project has been an ongoing priority concern. There are plans to continue to work on the store estate over the next three years.

“Special thanks goes to Clements, our shopfitters who have worked with Jessops for many years both in our old and new guise,” Scott added.

Offering expert photography and camera guidance to local communities, the stores provide shoppers with the signature services that Jessops is renowned for, including expert competent, friendly staff, try-before-you-buy product displays, and access to one of the widest ranges of cameras available on the high street.

“Most delays have been experienced in concluding the legal exchange of these properties. From a design, construction and fit out aspect, we have worked closely with our suppliers to provide high levels of efficiencies.

“Given that Peter Jones bought this company back from administration and now provides employment to many loyal colleagues and customers, it is extremely rewarding to be a part of it.”

At the Emersons Green site, customers can also utilise the one-hour, high quality professional printing services conveniently allowing Sainsbury’s customers to collect their photos after their weekly shop. Fascinatingly, shoppers can also attend a range of photography courses designed to meet the needs of all levels and abilities, as well as peruse a selection of gadgets including the latest Drones and telescopes.

Scott summarised with:

“I believe this project will be great for the community as it will bring new employment opportunities while also offering services that appeal to a broad age spectrum.

“Having a specialist photographic retailer such as Jessops gives customers that face to face specialism which is so often neglected in this day and age – to receive expert impartial advice. In addition with our range of Academy courses, those in the area can be assisted to really get the best out of their purchases and improve their photographic skills.”

Clements Limited

Clements Limited are a well-established, two-fold design, manufacture and installation company with a proven track record in award-winning in-store environment, POS and permanent merchandise solutions. The team has expertise in wood, metal, laminate, veneer glass, acrylic and print services, plus time-served craftsmanship to integrate these materials into outstanding presentations.

Clements Retail specialises in building exceptional retail environments and has a history of working with the world’s top brands. These include leading purveyors of design-led merchandise such as Michael Kors, Christian Louboutin, Alexander McQueen and Armani.

Clements POS are dedicated in creating exceptional Point of Sale and Permanent Merchandising solutions and is currently providing solutions for the UK’s premium FMCG brands such as Kraft Heinz, blu, Samsung and Innocent.

The company recently worked with Jessops on Project Saxon. They provided store planning services, liaised with the Sainsbury in store design team and base build contractors and manufactures and installed the fixtures, fittings, power and data systems, plus feature lighting elements.

Michael Duxbury from Clements Limited said: “Clements have a long standing relationship with Jessops and understand their requirements in depth. Bringing this knowledge to Project Saxon to ensure the Sainsbury in store design teams and their partners carrying our base build fully understood Jessops requirements were paramount in ensuring the success of the built element of the project.”