Dragon Peter Jones buys Jessops brand, but none of the 187 stores

Dragon's Den star and successful entrepreneur Peter Jones has bought the Jessops brand for an undisclosed sum. However, those hoping that the 187 high street stores that have been shut since the firm went into administration will be disappointed, the sale does not include them.

Instead, it is reported that Jones wishes to use the brand online only, for electronic retail. Peter Jones already part owns Expansys.com, the online retailer that sells consumer electronics, mobile phones, computers and, yes, cameras. Whether Jessops will be an off-shoot brand of this is unknown at present.

He plans to relaunch the brand next month.

The sale was confirmed by administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) last night - 31 January. "We can confirm we have sold the brand and certain other assets to a number of buyers including entrepreneur Peter Jones CBE," the company said in a statement.

The "other assets" are not thought to be the stores, rather leftover stock and intellectual property.

Fellow "Dragon" Theo Paphitis was previously rumoured to be interested in taking on some of the store locations for his own Ryman stationary chain.

Pocket-lint interviewed Peter Jones at the end of 2010 about his love of technology. In it, he talked mainly about mobile phones - owning a BlackBerry - rather than cameras.

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