AO World has announced that it has completed its acquisition of the specialist photography retailer, Jessops, from businessman and Dragons’ Den star, Peter Jones CBE.

The acquisition, which has been funded from existing cash resources, supports its strategy of expanding into adjacent categories.

AO World said that Jessops is a “trusted brand”, bringing specialist expertise in cameras and optical technology to its brands roster, while its recommerce business, Camera Jungle, is highly complementary to its existing musicMagpie operations.

It said that it expects the business to grow over the next 12 months as it leverages AO’s scale, traffic and operational expertise to drive efficiencies.

The acquisition comes as AO World said it expects its year-on-year revenue to increase by 5.5% in the so months to 30 September, while its profit before tax is expected to be up by over 20% to around £21.5m.

It stated that this reflected the underlying strength of the business, with operational improvements in its mobile and musicMagpie businesses.

Despite this, its profit expectations remain unchanged, reflecting both planned strategic investments, and a more challenging comparative environment in the second half.

Following the update, shares in AO World dropped by over 4%.

AO World’s founder and CEO, John Roberts, said: "We've carried our momentum into the new financial year with continued growth against a sluggish backdrop in the wider UK retail sector.

"It has been a busy first half of the year as we both buy and build more category capability, give more reasons to be an AO member and continue to build growth engines for the future. To that end I am delighted to welcome Jessops into the AO family and look forward to growing the existing business as well as integrating the category into the wider AO business.

"Our plan is clear and we will keep delivering on it. We are firmly on our path to over 5% PBT margin as our next milestone and have clear growth and efficiency initiatives to make that happen. We will do this while continuing to share more of our scale economies with our members."

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