After a disappointing start to its float, things are starting to pick up. Since the release of results in December, the shares have steadily increased from 147p to 161p.

The group has a strong and fast growing market share and should perform well.

They dont have a USP.

Just got back in to photography,hope the pictures are excellent over christmas..

Had the pictures developed and guess what +8,its a nice feeling when the colours come up true.

Its worth having a punt on these after todays news.

They looka bargain to me especially when you consider the price they floated at just over 12 months ago.

Jessops enjoys strong Christmas

MoneyAM

Jessops, a specialist photographic retailer, said it enjoyed strong trading over the Christmas period.

THis was helped by higher digital camera sales.

Total sales for the five weeks to January 1st jumped 13.3%, while total like-for-like sales rose 9.4%.

For the 13 weeks to January 1st, total sales grew 8.2% and total like-for-like sales climbed 2.3%. However, first-quarter gross margins, although up on last year, were 'marginally below' its expectations.

A combination of exclusive camera deals and competitive pricing on market leading cameras were the key factors behind Jessops' strong sales performance, it said.

'Trading was particularly buoyant in the week either side of Christmas,' said CEO, Derek Hine. 'Despite this positive performance, it is still early days in our financial year and Christmas is not as significant for us as for some other retailers.

'With nine months trading still to come, we are mindful of last year's market conditions, although this strong start to the year does underpin confidence in our prospects for the year as a whole,' he added.

cheers GF.

This was my first proper trade in the world of buying shares back in January 2005.
I paid 1.58 back then so with todays good news maybe it won`t be long before i recoup my losses.
I have got to say i`m really surprised at how good the sales have been considering all the doom and gloom being broadcast about the retail sector.I think the company under played their prospects in the last trading statement which i think is a good thing and has given us a nice surprise a bit like Amstrad really.

dough
I hope you topped up at 75p

I wish,topping up doesn`t seem to work that well for me normally although i did use my xmas bonus to top up with some more Character Group so maybe my luck is changing.

dough
I think you will do well there with todays announcement from CCT.

DB, you deserve the luck and I hope you get it.

To be able to buy at less than the FLOAT price is a real bonus especially when institutions have had first call.

Not many times when that happens.

Winnies buddy the top retail expert is a big fan of these, watch out for them roaring on.

cheeers GF.

Lifted from another board Nick Bubb the retail Analyst as Jessops as one of his 3 tips for the year.........

"Nick: So it's down at 80p and languishing on a PE of 8 even though it is a reasonably good business in a growth market, in digital cameras, where there's another market developing in the form of digital processing which they hope to exploit both in store and online and it's hard to know why the market hates it but I just sense that something will happen. Either trading will improve and investors will recognise that - or private equity. Probably a different private equity fund from the one who bought it before, or owned it before, will come in and I think at this level there's a lot of upside." ENDS.

Sounds very promosing.

cheers GF.

KBC PeelHunt Brokers reiterated their BUY recommendation on this one today.......

Jessops (JSP) Positive Q1 Trading Update FCAST: No Change, REC: BUY

Positive Q1 trading update. The 5-weeks to 1st Jan 06 saw Store LFL sales growth of +5.7% with a
corresponding 74.3% uplift in internet sales (albeit of a small base), a significant improvement over last year.
Q1 (13-weeks to 01 Jan 06) presents a more realistic picture of the underlying pattern of trade with store LFL
growth of +1.1% and internet sales up 51.5%. This is marginally ahead of our own estimate albeit this has not
been achieved without a small shortfall in gross margins though these remain ahead of last year. The most
encouraging news flow from the company for some time, a PER at 8.7x declining to 7.9x suggests further
downgrades which we do not believe is necessarily the case. Estimates unchanged at this stage
recommendation moved from a Hold to a Buy given more positive start to the year and relative discount to the
sector (PER: c15x).

cheers GF.

And we have more supporters of JSP, from last nights Groth Company Investor.

Jessops - BUY
Companies: JSP
09/01/2006

Like-for-like sales at specialist photographic retailer Jessops improved 9.4% over the five weeks to 1 January, with like-for-like sales from its website zooming up an astounding 74.3%.

Growth this year, even surpassing strong comparables from 2004, was driven by increased digital camera sales and Jessops gains seem to have arisen because of its early focus on digital photography, resulting in its strong links with manufacturers and a credible high street reputation. In order to compensate for difficult market conditions in 2005 Jessops established exclusive deals on some camera models, of which 16 were run over the festive period. These proved to be very successful, leading to the strategy being continued into 2006.

Jessops other price-led promotions over the Christmas period meant in-store products were competitive even with internet rivals and, although obviously lower-margin than normal pricing structures, are expected to stimulate increased return custom, particularly for photo development, which has much higher margins than hardware sales.

February was the period last year when sales collapsed and its possible that, post Christmas gift-giving, the latent demand for hardware has been soaked up. But, well behind that of analogue cameras, the current 50% household penetration of digital cameras still offers plenty of opportunity and Jessops has one of the leading processing offerings.

Results for the year to September 2005, released in November, showed pre-tax profits up 354% on the previous year to 5.9m on sales up 2.6%. For the full year 2006, brokers forecast 16.5m profits and earnings per share of 11p. The forecast p/e of 9.4 is not demanding. Buy.

Oliver Haill
Market cap: 105.92m
PE Forecast: 9.4
Share price: 103p


cheers GF.

Off to a fair start.

cheers Gf.

Thanks for the posts Goldfinger it all seems very positive,the start of 2006 has been good to me so far as investing is concerned ,long may it continue!

Glad to hear that DB. Heres a bit more Hype for Jessops...........

The Times January 10, 2006

Jessops presents rosier picture
By Elizabeth Judge



DEMAND for digital cameras has helped Jessops, the photographic retailer, to shrug off difficult trading conditions and fears about the threat from mobile camera phones.
The company, which reported a surge in internet sales, recorded an increase in like-for-like sales over the five weeks to January 1 of 9.4 per cent. Total sales were up by 13.3 per cent.



Jessops said that the growth, which will further encourage optimism before an intensive week of results for the retail sector, was driven by continued strong demand for digital cameras. Sales of the cameras were up 23 per cent on the same time last year, while sales of high-ticket single-lens reflex (SLR) digital cameras costing between 300 and 1,000 were up by a dramatic 93 per cent.

The retailer, which has 285 stores and plans to open a further 15 or 16 this financial year, said that its decision to promote a number of cameras offered under exclusive deals with manufacturers had helped to woo customers away from rivals.

The company also saw a large jump in sales over the internet. Within the total like-for-like increase, sales over the net and by direct mail jumped 74.3 per cent, compared with a 5.7 per cent rise in in-store sales.

Though the growth over December came at the expense of some fall in gross margin for the financial years first quarter which was marginally below Jessopss expectations analysts welcomed the groups performance and the shares closed up 6p to 103p.

Rhys Williams, an analyst with Seymour Pierce, said: Overall, this is a solid performance and gives us confidence for the group for the remainder of the year.

He said that although Christmas traditionally is less important for Jessops than the summer, the figures gave a good indicator of where sales were going and left the group strongly positioned for the months ahead.

In December Jessops reported a 1.2 per cent drop in like-for-like sales during October and November.

Chris Langley, chief operating officer of Jessops, accepted that the figures were a welcome respite from a difficult trading year, but said that it was still early days in the companys financial year, which started in October. Mr Langley said: The retail market is still quite volatile.

The group is also about to enter the traditionally difficult spring period, which last year saw a sharp drop-off in sales.

Last year Jessops, which floated in 2004, prompted fears that it was unable to cope with the consumer slowdown and competition from camera phones when it issued a profit warning. Underlying profits declined in the companys last financial year. Although digital cameras in British households have reached only 50 per cent penetration, Jessops has to compete not only with traditional rivals, such as Dixons and other photographic retailers, but with supermarkets. Furthermore, camera phones have presented a new challenge. Jessops said, however, that it was encouraged not only by the rise in sales of digital cameras, but by a move by existing owners to upgrade from their original digital cameras.

SNAPPED UP

Annual digital camera sales more than doubled between 2002 and 2005, to 70 million units globally
Sales will reach 92 million units in 2009
Digital camera penetration is about 50 per cent in the UK
Europe is the largest market, ahead of the United States and Japan

cheers GF.

A nice move up already this morning.

cheers GF.

And more Newspaper coverage from the telegraph. Its worth noting that 4 brokers have this as a STRONG BUY and 1 broker as it as a BUY.

Jessops clicks with demand for digital
By Caroline Muspratt (Filed: 10/01/2006)


Camera and photographic products retailer Jessops has reported strong growth in Christmas sales as digital cameras again proved popular gifts.



The chain negotiated exclusive deals with manufacturers where it was the only retailer to carry a particular camera in a certain colour, or was able to offer some new models two weeks ahead of rivals.

Sales across the company have been gathering momentum, up 13.3pc in the five weeks to January 1 after an 8.2pc rise in the 13 weeks to January 1 and a 3.1pc rise in the eight weeks to November 27.

Same store sales rose 5.7pc in the five weeks to January 1 while internet sales, which account for around 10pc of total business, jumped 74.3pc.

Derek Hine, chief executive, said: "It is a good outcome given that we were up against some pretty strong comparators from a good Christmas for Jessops the previous year.

"Trading was particularly buoyant in the week either side of Christmas."

However, Mr Hine added: "With nine months' trading still to come, we are mindful of last year's market conditions, although this strong start to the year does underpin confidence in our prospects for the year as a whole."

Jessops said that the growth was driven by an uplift in sales of digital cameras, which grew 23pc, with sales of digital SLRs up by 92.8pc.

It said a combination of exclusive deals and competitive pricing were key factors in the strong sales performance.

The company added that gross margins in the first quarter were "marginally below our expectations" but they were still ahead of last year.

The shares rose 6 to 103p.

cheers GF.

Blimey this one takes some moving. Not sure if thre is an overhang in the market but buys have been far higher today as they were yesterday.

cheers GF.

Off to a positive start.

cheers GF.

GF
Have you had a look at CCT sales up 60% with a very low M/Cap.