Dixons Carphone

Currys plc is a British multinational electrical and telecommunications retailer, and services company headquartered in London, England, which was formed in 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.

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 and Elkjøp, Elgiganten and Gigantti in the Nordics.

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. Carphone Warehouse's Sir Charles Dunstone was appointed chairman, and Sebastian James became chief executive.

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

In January 2018, Sebastian James resigned as chief executive to become president and managing director of Boots UK. 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.

In March 2019, Dixons Carphone was given a £29.1m fine from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for mis-selling 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. During the period under investigation, between 1 December 2008 and 30 June 2015, Carphone Warehouse sold Geek Squad policies worth more than £444.7m. Dixons Carphone did not contest the FCA's findings and qualified for a 30% discount, reducing the fine from £41.6m.

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.

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.

Following the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, on 4 August 2020, Dixons Carphone announced 800 job cuts in response to increased costs. The company also announced plans to re-organise its operations in its 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."

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.

In June 2023, Frasers Group acquired a stake in Currys, which would increase during the year.

In November 2023, Currys announced that they would be selling their Greek and Cypriot business, Kotsovolos, and would be leaving the South Eastern European market. Outside the UK and Ireland, the company would do business only in the Nordic countries.

On 17 February 2024, ''Sky News'' reported that Elliott Investment Management was interested in buying Currys for £700M; Currys turned down the offer. A leading shareholder in Currys demanded that the company's board not engage with potential suitor Elliott Advisors unless it proposed a minimum offer of 75p-a-share, valuing the retailer at around £800m, amid claims that a 62p-a-share offer from Elliott undervalued the company.

Operations

The company owns the following brands:

United Kingdom and Ireland

* Currys – specialises in home electronics, household appliances and computing
* iD Mobile – a mobile virtual network operator (UK only)
* Carphone Warehouse – online retailer of mobile handsets (closed physical concessions in 2020)

Nordics (Elkjøp Nordic)

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

Former brands

Former retail brands

Former operational brands

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. The CEO of Currys plc is Alex Baldock, appointed in 2018. The CFO of the business is Bruce Marsh, appointed in July 2021.

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. A further security breach, said to affect 1.2 million customers, was reported by the company in June 2018. The number of customers affected was later increased to 10 million.

References

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2014 establishments in England
British companies established in 2014

Companies in the FTSE 250 Index
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Consumer electronics retailers of the United Kingdom
Electronics companies established in 2014
Manufacturing companies based in London
Mobile phone companies of the United Kingdom
Mobile phone manufacturers
Multinational companies
Multinational companies headquartered in the United Kingdom
Online retailers of the United Kingdom
Retail companies established in 2014
Technology companies based in London
Telecommunications companies established in 2014