Multichannel camera retailer Warehouse Express is to take on rival Jessops with plans to open more stores.

The retailer opened its first store in Norwich late last year. Chief executive Colin McCarthy said: “We are looking for more stores, but we have got to be cautious.” He declined to say how many stores it would open.

The store opening vaulted Warehouse Express into the notoriously tough high street retail camera market. Rival chain Jessops was forced to close 81 stores last year in a move to reduce costs, following struggling sales.

But McCarthy said that its Norwich store had performed strongly over the festive period. He said: “The uplift before Christmas has continued through January, which has been very buoyant. We have been beating budget considerably.”

The Norwich store is a showroom, which has a studio where customers can use the cameras on offer, take photos, download them to computers and print the images out. Customers have travelled from across the UK to visit the store and test the products, according to McCarthy.

The retailer also plans to roll out additional web sites in Europe by summer, but declined to reveal locations yet.

Online and mail order sales rocketed 31 per cent in the three months to December 31.

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