Jessops plummets on third profit warning -Business-Industry Sectors-Retailing-TimesOnline

Jessops plummets on third profit warning : "Shares in Jessops, the UK camera retailer, plunged 73 per cent, or 34p, to 12.5p today after it issued its third profit warning in less than 80 days and gave warning that it would not have enough cash to order Christmas stock.

Jessops said that a digital camera and camcorder price war meant that sales by value had plummeted, and that it would dive £8.5 million into the red in the first half, compared with the £6.8 million profit it had predicted only a month ago and the £19 million it had expected in November.

Sales of compact digital cameras, already down more than 10 per cent in January at the time of the last warning, had deteriorated further and were down 16 per cent in February, while camcorder sales had fallen from 17 per cent last month to 22 per cent. "