Currys

Currys is an electrical retailer in the UK and Republic of Ireland, and is owned by DSG International plc. It specialises in home electronics and household appliances, with 295 superstores and 73 high street stores.

Their annual sales in 2003/04 were £1,752 million and £1,852 million in 2004/05.

Currently the store which has the highest turnover is in Fosse Park, Leicester. Other major stores are located in Wednesbury (north of Birmingham, just off Junction 9 of the M6), Teeside Park (Stockton-on-Tees), Gateshead and Croydon. The largest store in terms of size is Wednesbury. New stores have recently been opened in Solihull, Newport (on the Isle of Wight), Chorley, Ashford and Sudbury.

In April 2006, it was announced that Dixons stores (except in Ireland) would be rebranded as "Currys.digital", taking the total to 550 stores. In Ireland, the Currys brand continued to be only used for large-format stores, with Dixons retained on the high street. However, in August 2008, DSG Ireland announced that it would also be rebranding the Dixons stores as Currys , similar to the UK move, but without the ".digital" suffix and with a new Currys logo.

Currently, Currys is the leading electrical retailer in the United Kingdom, ahead of their main competitor Comet.

History

The First 100 Years

Currys was founded in 1884 by Henry Curry (born 1850), when he started to build bicycles full time in a shed at the back of his garden at 40 Painter Street, Leicester, England. He opened his first shop in 1888 at 271 Belgrave Gate, Leicester. The company was put on a proper financial footing in 1897 when Henry formed a partnership with his sons, calling the company H. Curry & Sons. The business continued to grow and floated on the stock exchange in 1927. By this time the shops sold a wide variety of goods including bicycles, toys, radios and gramophones. Currys pulled out of cycle manufacturing and retailing in the 1960s to concentrate on electrical goods.

Store count by Year
Year	Number of stores
1904	1
1908	6
1914	32
1925	135
1930	192
1940	215
1943	170
1953	251
1963	360
1973	411
1983	550

1984: Takeover by DSG International

Currys was taken over by DSG International plc (owners of the Dixons electrical products retail chain) in 1984 but maintained its separate brand identity. In April 2006, DSG announced that its Dixons stores (except in Ireland and in duty-free areas in airports) would be rebranded as Currys.digital, making a total of 550 Currys stores in all.

Before the Dixons rebranding, the chain contained only a few small town centre stores compared with its much greater number of large out-of-town superstores. These stores are generally split into four main departments - Computing, Home Entertainment, Major Domestic Appliances and Small Domestic Appliances. The stores are a mix of display products and self-service sections.

Customers can now reserve and collect products, meaning that products can be reserved on the Internet, then checked and bought at the local retail outlet.

End of Currys High Street stores

It was announced on 17 January 2007, by John Clare, the Group Chief Executive that the leases on the remaining 'Currys High Street' stores (not the rebranded Currys.Digital stores) expire, it is unlikely that the leases will be renewed, hence the stores will be closed at the earliest opportunity. This was included as part of 'Jeremy Warner's Outlook', a business comment panel in the Independent newspaper (UK).

Criticism

Currys has previously fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Authority regulations. In its February 2006 bulletin the ASA upheld a complaint that whilst Currys was advertising a package featuring the 'latest' AMD processor there were more recent processors available. It should however be noted that this infringement may be classed as a technical error, rather than attempt to mislead customers or mis-sell the product.