A LANCASHIRE camera retailer has secured a £200,000 cash injection to help it to weather the coronavirus crisis.

Frank Wilkinson Cameras had seen sales at 50 per cent of their usual trading power - mainly due to online transactions.

All of their high street stores, includes sites, in Burnley, Bury and Preston, have been temporarily closed due to the pandemic though.

The company had applied for assistance from the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans Scheme, to tide it over.

And the outfit has now received confirmation from Barclays of a successful bid, which will help to protect 50 jobs across the north-west.

David Parkinson, the firm's managing director, said: "Like-for-like sales in April were at 50 per cent year-on-year on thanks to our online sales and the hard work of our customer service team. But the lockdown was clearly going to have a huge impact on our business, so we asked Barclays for support."

Leigh Tregonning, the bank's relationship manager, said the firm had "put in a huge amount of work to build a strong and successful business by employing highly trained and knowledgeable staff", offering a different service to online rivals.

"When coronavirus impacted them and they were forced to close their stores, we moved quickly to discuss how Barclays could help," he added.