Jessops sees festive sales rise

Jessops saw strong shop and mail order sales

Strong demand for digital cameras helped Jessops to boost its sales over the Christmas and New Year period.

The retailer, which has more than 270 stores in the UK, saw its like-for-like sales rise 4.5% in the five weeks to 2 January, with total sales up 10.4%.

Digital cameras continued to prove popular, with sales increasing by 25% over the period.

Jessops, which floated on the stock market earlier this year, said trading continued to hold up into 2005.

Strong momentum

As well as strong shop sales, Jessops' mail order business enjoyed a 46% rise in like-for-like business over the period.

Combined store and mail order sales rose 6.2% on a like-for-like basis in December.

This represented a slight slowdown on the 6.6% increase seen in the eight weeks to 28 November.

Our trading over Christmas held up well Derek Hine, Jessops chief executive

The amount of analogue films processed by Jessops fell as more people made the transition to digital models.

This resulted in a decline in overall developing and processing sales.

"Despite a generally tough retail environment, our trading over Christmas held up well against some very strong growth comparators both last year and in 2003," said chief executive Derek Hine.

"Trading in the first three months has maintained the momentum of 2004 with continued evidence of the strong demand for digital products," he added.

Jessops shares were down 3.75p at 160p in afternoon trading.