Background:
The earliest surviving photograph dates from 1827 and required an exposure time of over eight hours. It was then another 70 years before a man by the name of George Eastman learned to make photographic film, and it took until the turn of the century before the Brownie arrived. The Brownie changed everything, finally bringing photography to the masses.
Introduction:
In 1935 Frank Jessop Opened his First store on Oxford Street in Leicester.
The company initially reaped the rewards of the boom in digital cameras, investing heavily in digital technology as the medium took over from traditional film, and by 2001 the number of Jessops branches on the high street had swelled to more than 200.
A year later, Jessops announced it was to open a further 40 stores, creating 400 new jobs and taking the total to more than 250.
As Britain's only specialist nationwide camera retailer it sold brands including Canon, Fuji, Kodak, Nikon, Olympus and Sony.
As well as offering a wide range of digital cameras and accessories, the company provided a service for customers to develop digital pictures in its stores, and introduced Jessops branded paper for home printing.
And along with camera equipment, the business also stocked digital and analogue camcorders, binoculars and darkroom and studio equipment.
The firm had ceased being a family-run business in 1996 after Alan Jessop retired and was sold in a management buyout.
Decline of Jessops:
Then in 2002, Dutch bank ABN Amro's venture capital arm bought Jessops for £116 million.
But by the middle of the decade, the company began to struggle to compete when other high street and internet competitors entered the market.
The firm had ceased being a family-run business in 1996 after Alan Jessop retired and was sold in a management buyout.
Then in 2002, Dutch bank ABN Amro's venture capital arm bought Jessops for £116 million.
But by the middle of the decade, the company began to struggle to compete when other high street and internet competitors entered the market.
The firm, begun by Frank Jessop in 1935, closed its 187 branches in 2013, including the original Leicester store.
The brand was bought by a group including Dragons' Den star Peter Jones and some stores across the UK reopened but not in Leicester.
What led to the decline of Jessops:
There were a few factors that led to the decline in the business. Jessop’s clearly expanded the business too quickly, like Thomas Cook did, hoovering up lots of retail space, to a peak of over 187 stores by 2013. Retail space, coupled with wages is expensive.
Jessop’s also failed to position themselves correctly in the marketplace. They sold budget and mid-range digital cameras, but offered little in the way of high end specialist equipment for serious photographers.
The camera market itself had been declining since 2010, where at its peak over 121 million units were sold a year and the reason for this was the advent of the Smart phone cameras that were becoming that good, a second separate camera was no longer required.
Death of Frank Jessop:
Frank Jessop, the founder of Jessops passed away peacefully aged 96, at his home in Cropston, Leicestershire.
Frank Jessop - or 'Mr Frank' as he was affectionately known - originally trained as a pharmacist and opened his pharmacy in Leicester in 1935.
Given his tremendous passion for photography, it was this element of the business which quickly grew, and the Leicester store was to be the first in a network of photographic stores trading as Jessop of Leicester.
Frank Jessop leaves behind a widow Laura, three children, nine grandchildren, and eleven great grandchildren.

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