Dragon’s Den star Peter Jones’ digital camera retailer Jessops is being chased over unpaid tax whereas gross sales fall amid the rise of smartphones.
HM Income & Customs has given the agency a winding-up discover after it filed for administration 3 times in 4 years and faces falling into insolvency once more if it fails at hand over unpaid tax.
In accordance with The Occasions, HMRC issued a petition asking for a courtroom to close down Jessops. This can be withdrawn if it meets its tax legal responsibility.
The digital camera store firm – specialising in digital pictures tools, telescopes and picture printing – was purchased by Mr Jones’s PJ Funding Group in 2013.
Jessops, the digital camera retailer owned by Dragons’ Den’s Peter Jones, is being chased over unpaid tax whereas gross sales fall amid the rise of smartphones
The corporate was purchased by Mr Jones’s PJ Funding Group in 2013
It has struggled to show a revenue lately attributable to many individuals utilizing their telephones as cameras or shopping for tools on Amazon.
In accordance with The Occasions, Jessops’ gross sales fell 7.5 per cent from £21.58 million to £19.97 million within the 12 months to October 1, 2023, and the corporate made a lack of £1.2 million.
Jessops beforehand filed a discover to nominate directors after it was badly hit by lockdown restrictions.
It had employed insolvency specialists FRP and mentioned it was contemplating a Firm’s Voluntary Association (CVA) restructuring course of in a bid to guard its long-term future.
All of Jessops’ shops, together with its flagship websites in Birmingham and London’s Oxford Avenue, had been closed till April 12 because of the enforced closure of non-essential retailers.
Jessops mentioned it has appointed advisers to have a look at the way it can ‘carve out a brand new technique that may allow the enterprise to proceed to compete’, regardless of turmoil on the excessive road.
Mr Jones has been a star of BBC programme Dragon’s Den because it launched in 2005
A spokesman for the enterprise mentioned on the time: ‘Little doubt, that may embody additional rising Jessops’ digital providing, in addition to contemplating the alternatives to accomplice with different retailers to proceed Jessops’ excessive road presence.
‘We’re working intently with key suppliers and companions to agree a means ahead and PJ Funding Group have confirmed that they stand prepared to offer extra funding if an acceptable settlement may be reached on sustainably supporting Jessops within the subsequent stage of its growth.’
Mr Jones has been a star of BBC programme Dragon’s Den because it launched in 2005 and is the present’s solely remaining authentic investor.
