Currys plc

Currys plc, formerly Dixons Carphone plc, is a British multinational electrical and telecommunications retailer and services company headquartered in London, England.[3] It was formed on 7 August 2014 by the merger of Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse Group. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

This article is about the parent company formed as Dixons Carphone following the 2014 merger. For the retail chain it owns, see Currys.

Currys plc
TypePublic limited company
LSE: CURY
FTSE 250 Component
IndustryConsumer electronics
PredecessorDixons Carphone
Dixons Retail
Carphone Warehouse Group
Founded7 August 2014 (2014-08-07)
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK
Number of locations
830 stores (2023)[1]
Area served
United Kingdom
Ireland
Mainland Europe
Key people
Ian Livingston
(Chairman)
Alex Baldock
(Group Chief Executive)
RevenueDecrease £10,144 million (2022)[2]
Increase £222 million (2022)[2]
Increase £71 million (2022)[2]
Number of employees
32,000 (2023)[1]
Websitewww.currysplc.com

The company operates under a number of brands in the United Kingdom, Ireland and mainland Europe. These include Currys in the United Kingdom and Ireland; Elkjøp in Norway; Elgiganten and Gigantti in other Nordic countries; and Kotsovolos in Greece and Cyprus.

History

Following shareholder agreement in July 2014, the £3.8 billion merged entity was launched on 7 August 2014; on the first day of trading the shares in the merged business were owned 50:50 by the former Dixons Retail and former Carphone Warehouse shareholders.[4][5] Carphone Warehouse's Sir Charles Dunstone was appointed chairman, and Sebastian James became chief executive.[6]

On the first day of trading, the company opened Carphone Warehouse concessions in seven PC World or Currys stores.[7] In December 2016, Dixons and SSE, a domestic energy supplier, announced a partnership to provide "connected home" services in the United Kingdom.[8]

In January 2018, Sebastian James resigned as chief executive to become president and managing director of Boots UK.[9] Alex Baldock left his previous role as chief executive of Shop Direct (the company responsible for brands such as Very and Littlewoods) to succeed James as chief executive of Dixons Carphone.[10]

In March 2019, Dixons Carphone was given a £29.1m fine from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for misselling its Geek Squad services. The FCA found that the company's staff were trained to sell the service to customers who already had an insurance cover.[11] During the period under investigation, between 1 December 2008 and 30 June 2015, Carphone Warehouse sold Geek Squad policies worth more than £444.7m.[12]

Dixons Carphone did not contest the FCA's findings and qualified for a 30% discount, reducing the fine from £41.6m.[13] In June 2019, shares in Dixons Carphone fell almost 20% following a significant decline in full year profits, mainly caused by consumers' growing delay in upgrading their mobile phones.[14]

On 3 April 2020, the company permanently closed 531 stand-alone Carphone Warehouse stores that were solely focused on telephone devices. Subsequently, 3,000 job positions related to the affected stores were cut. According to the firm, the reason behind the closure of the stores was the online shift of customers and a lesser extent of phone upgrades.[15]

Following the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, on 4 August 2020, Dixons Carphone announced additional 800 job cuts in order to reduce the costs caused by the pandemic. The company also announced its plans to re-organise its operations in their bigger stores. Regarding the decision, the firm's chief operating officer stated that they wanted "to empower store leadership teams, create a flatter management structure and make it easy for customers to shop with us."[16]

The business was renamed from Dixons Carphone to Currys plc in September 2021. The Currys brand also replaced the company's PC World, Team Knowhow and Carphone Warehouse brands.[17]

Operations

The company owns the following brands:[18][19]

United Kingdom and Ireland

Northern Europe
  • Elkjøp – ("Electrical Buy") sells home electronics and household appliances in Norway
  • Elgiganten – ("Electrical Giant") sells home electronics and household appliances in Denmark and Sweden
  • Gigantti – ("Giant") sells home electronics and household appliances in Finland, franchised[20] by Pisiffik in Greenland[21]
  • Elko – franchise[20] owned by Festi hf that uses the same brand markers, selling home electronics and household appliances in Iceland[22]
  • Elding Elrisin – Elgiganten franchise in the Faroe Islands[20]

South Eastern Europe
  • Kotsovolos – sells home electronics and household appliances in Greece and Cyprus

Former retail brands
Brand Description Founded Ceased
Dixons A high-street retailer of consumer electronics in the United Kingdom and Ireland 1937 2012
PC World A retail chain of mass-market computer megastores 1991 2021
Dixons Travel A technology retailer operating in airports 1994 2021
Carphone Warehouse A mobile phone retailer that operated through standalone stores 1989 2020[23]

Former operational brands
Brand Description Founded Ceased
Geek Squad UK A provider of aftersales and insurance for Carphone Warehouse 2006 2017
Tech Guys[24] An operational services brand for Currys and PC World stores 2006 2010
Knowhow[24] An operational services and aftersales brand for Currys and PC World stores 2010 2017
Team Knowhow[25] An operational and aftersales services brand for Currys PC World and Carphone Warehouse stores 2017 2021[18]

Leadership

The company's board is chaired by Ian Livingston. The non-executive directors are Andrea Gisle Joosen, Eileen Burbidge, Fiona McBain, Gerry Murphy and Tony DeNunzio.[26] The CEO of Currys plc is Alex Baldock, appointed in 2018.[26] The CFO of the business is Bruce Marsh, appointed in July 2021.[26]

Data security breaches

The group was fined £400,000 by the Information Commissioner in January 2018, as a result of unauthorised access to the personal data of over three million customers in 2015.[27] A further security breach, said to affect 1.2 million customers, was reported by the company in June 2018.[28] The number of customers affected was later increased to 10 million.[29]

References
  1. "At a glance". Currys plc. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  2. "Annual Results 2021/22" (PDF). Dixons Carphone. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  3. Dixons Carphone, Company Information Service, retrieved 28 February 2021
  4. "Dixons and Carphone warehouse merge to exploit internet of things". Marketing Week. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
  5. "Dixons and Carphone Warehouse shares drop on merger". BBC News. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  6. Ruddick, Graham (15 May 2014). "Carphone Warehouse and Dixons agree £3.8bn merger". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 15 May 2014. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  7. "Dixons Carphone unveils new stores". BBC News. 7 August 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2014.
  8. "Dixons Carphone joins with energy supplier SSE for UK 'connected home' venture". Reuters. 14 December 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  9. Slawson, Nicola (20 January 2018). "Dixons Carphone CEO will step down to run chemist chain Boots". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  10. Boland, Hannah (19 January 2018). "Dixons Carphone hires Shop Direct's Baldock to top role after chief executive quits for Boots". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 21 February 2019.
  11. Jahshan, Elias (13 March 2019). "Dixons Carphone slugged with £29m fine for mis-selling mobile insurance". Retail Gazette. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  12. "Geek Squad fine over insurance mis-selling". 13 March 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  13. Chapman, Ben (13 March 2019). "Dixons Carphone fined £29m for pushing phone insurance customers didn't need". The Independent. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  14. Kollewe, Julia (20 June 2019). "Dixons Carphone reveals big losses at mobile phone shops". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  15. Provan, Sarah; Eley, Jonathan (17 March 2020). "Dixons Carphone Warehouse closes 530 UK stores with loss of 3,000 jobs". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  16. Eley, Jonathan (4 August 2020). "Dixons Carphone to axe 800 jobs in revamp of operations". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  17. Onita, Laura (13 May 2021). "Dixons, PC World and Carphone Warehouse to disappear in Currys rebrand". The Telegraph. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  18. "Our brands". Currys. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  19. "What we do". Elkjøp Nordic. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  20. "About us". Elkjøp Nordic. Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  21. "Elgigantenbrand Pisiffik.gl". Pisiffik (in Danish). Retrieved 8 January 2023.
  22. "Um ELKO". ELKO (in Icelandic). Retrieved 7 January 2023.
  23. "Carphone Warehouse to close all standalone stores at cost of 2,900 jobs". BBC News. 17 March 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  24. "Dixons sets up new technical support service Knowhow". The Guardian. 21 November 2010. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  25. "Dixons Carphone expands services offering at Currys PC & Carphone Warehouse stores with roll out of Team Knowhow". Retail Gazette. 27 July 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
  26. "Board of Directors". www.currysplc.com. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  27. "Carphone Warehouse fined £400,000 after serious failures placed customer and employee data at risk". ICO. Information Commissioner's Office. 10 January 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  28. "Investigation Into Unauthorised Data Access". Investis. RNS London Stock Exchange. 13 June 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  29. "Nine million more hit by Dixons data breach". BBC News: Business. 31 July 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
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