Companies: JSP   

From 18 May Chris Langley will have his finger on the button at camera retailer Jessops, after the present chief executive Derek Hine retires. Currently chief operating officer, Langley, 42, joined Jessops in February last year and has over 20 years’ retail experience in photography and electronics, including four years as managing director of Dixons stores.

Having recently revealed that total sales were up 6.5 per cent and that like-for-like sales grew 2.6 per cent for the 25 weeks to 26 March, Langley looks to be taking charge of a healthy company. From its current estate of 288 stores in the UK, Jessops is increasingly focused on selling digital cameras and saw total sales increase 15 per cent by value in this subsector in the half.
 
Management has confirmed that interims to April, out in May, are going to be in line with expectations. For the full year, brokers forecast £16.5 million of profits and earnings per share of 11p. At the current price, the shares trade at 10.5 full year earnings and 9.1 times those of the following year.