Dixons Retail

Last updated

Dixons Retail plc
Company type Public limited company
Many brands including Dixons
IndustryRetail
FoundedOctober 1937
Defunct6 August 2014 (2014-08-06)
FateMerged with Carphone Warehouse
Successor Dixons Carphone (now Currys)
Headquarters Acton, London, before which Hemel Hempstead (from 1993)
Key people
 Lord Kalms
(Life President)
John Allan
(Chairman)
Sebastian James (CEO from 2012)
Products Brown goods
White goods
Telecommunications
Information Technology
Cameras
Consumer Electronics
Revenue £8.213 billion (2013) [1]
£136.0 million (2013) [1]
£168.1 million (2013) [1]
Number of employees
33,000 (2014) [2]

Dixons Retail plc was one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in Europe, which merged with Carphone Warehouse in 2014 to create Dixons Carphone, which was renamed Currys plc in 2021. In the United Kingdom, the company operated Currys, Currys Digital, PC World (with stores increasingly dual-branded 'Currys PC World'), Dixons Travel and its service brand Knowhow.

Contents

At the time of the merger in 2014, Dixons Retail had 530 outlets in the United Kingdom and Ireland and 322 in Northern Europe. Its Nordic and central European business was operated under the Elkjøp umbrella, and it also operated Kotsovolos in Greece. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

The company, formerly known as Dixons Group plc and later DSG International plc, specialised in selling mass market technology consumer electronics products, audio video equipment, PCs, small and large domestic appliances, photographic equipment, communication products and related financial and after-sales services such as extended service agreements, product set-up and installation, and repairs.

History

A Dixons store in Sheffield in 2000 Dixons Sheffield store in 2000 (cropped).jpg
A Dixons store in Sheffield in 2000

Early years

Dixons was founded as a photographic studio by Charles Kalms and Michael Mindel in the High Street in Southend under the name of Dixons Studios Limited, a company registered in October 1937 with share capital of £100. [3] The name Dixons, selected randomly from the telephone directory, was sufficiently short to fit above the small shop front. [3] In the early 1940s, Dixons set up seven studios around London but by the end of the Second World War the business had been reduced to a single studio in Edgware. [3] Stanley Kalms, the son of the founder, joined the business in 1948 and started advertising direct sales in the press, with postal ordering and delivery. [3]

In 1950, the company began to sell cameras. In 1957, it opened a head office to house the staff now dealing with 60,000 mail order customers and to centralise buying. [4]

Dixons was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1962, changing its name at that time to Dixons Photographic Limited. [5] It bought out competitors Ascotts in 1962, and Bennetts in 1964. [5] In 1967, Dixons bought an 85,000 sq ft (7,900 m2) colour film processing laboratory in Stevenage. [5] Charles Kalms was succeeded by his son Stanley in 1971. [6] In 1972, Dixons bought another competitor, Wallace Heaton, and in 1974, it opened its Stevenage distribution centre. [6]

1980s and 1990s

In 1984 Dixons acquired Currys, a retail chain with 570 shops selling electrical and other household goods; Currys retained its separate brand identity. [7]

In February 1993, Dixons bought Vision Technology Group (VTG), operating under the PC World brand at Croydon, Lakeside Shopping Centre, Brentford and Staples Corner. [8] Later that year, the company sold VTG's mail order division, Dixons US Holdings Inc and Supasnaps. [8] The company opened its first duty free store at Heathrow Terminal 3 in 1994, and later that year launched phone store The Link, the company's first venture into communications. The head office moved to Hemel Hempstead. [8]

In November 1996, Dixons bought DN Computer Services, a computer reseller business. [8] It also acquired the retail assets of Harry Moore Ltd, an Irish electrical retailer. [8] Cellnet bought a 40% stake in The Link in April 1997. Also that year, the Dixons website was launched. [8] In 1998, Freeserve, a free Internet service, was launched; it was later sold to France Telecom and renamed Wanadoo. [8] Dixons bought Elkjøp, a Norwegian retailer, in November 1999. [9]

2000s

In October 2002, Dixons bought UniEuro, an Italian-based electrical retailer, [10] and Genesis Communications, a mobile phone service provider. [11] The company opened its first Electro World store in Hungary in February 2002. [12] In October 2005, Dixons Group plc changed its name to DSG International plc. [13]

Further potential expansion came in April 2005, when DSGi bought an interest in Eldorado Group, the largest electrical retailer in Russia and Ukraine, with an option to buy the rest by 2011 for US$1.9 billion (about £1 billion GBP). [14] This option was not pursued, DSGi withdrawing their interest in April 2007. [15]

In May 2006, DSGi was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise. [11] The company announced that the Dixons brand would continue purely online and that all high street stores would be rebranded Currys.digital. [11] DSGi also bought 75% of Fotovista, a French photographic business. [16] In January 2008, DSGi announced that it would stop selling analogue televisions and only sell integrated digital televisions, in an effort to get consumers ready for the digital switchover. [17]

In May 2008, DSGi announced that it would close 77 of its 177 Currys.digital shops in the United Kingdom, as their building leases expired over the following five years. [18]

2010s

In May 2010, the company secured almost exclusive rights to sell the Apple iPad. [19] In June 2010, DSGi changed its name to Dixons Retail plc. [20]

Merger with Carphone Warehouse

In May 2014, Dixons announced a merger, that soon came to pass, with Carphone Warehouse; the combined company would have market capitalisation of around £3.8 billion. [21] Dixons thus became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dixons Carphone Holdings Limited, and was renamed to Dixons Retail Group plc. [22] Sebastian James, who had been Dixons CEO since 2012, was appointed as CEO of Dixons Carphone. [21]

Operations

As of 2014, Dixons had 530 outlets in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and 322 in northern Europe. [23] The company is structured according to the international locations of its businesses and brands, as detailed below:

United Kingdom and Ireland

Dual branded "Currys PC World" store in Leeds PC World, the Headrow, Leeds (20th February 2013) (tweaked).jpg
Dual branded "Currys PC World" store in Leeds

Brands comprise (40% of sales, largest market share in United Kingdom and Ireland): [24]

Northern Europe

Electro World store in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic Vseborice, Elektro World (cropped).jpg
Electro World store in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic

Brands comprise (32% of sales, largest market share in Nordic countries and Czech Republic): [24]

Southern Europe

Brands comprise (13% of sales, largest market share in Greece): [24]

Product brands

Prinztronic branded games console. Prinztronic-tournament-colour-programmable-2000.jpg
Prinztronic branded games console.

Since the Prinz brand was introduced in the 1950s, [26] Dixons Retail has used a number of own brand names for products sold in its stores.

Current

Dixons' brand lineup underwent a major reorganisation during 2010. [27] As of August 2013, the brands in use include the following:

Former

Saisho brand logo Saisho-logo.png
Saisho brand logo
1980s Matsui logo with the pseudo-Japanese "rising sun" symbol Currys Matsui logo with rising sun.png
1980s Matsui logo with the pseudo-Japanese "rising sun" symbol
A Prinzsound SM8, sold in the United States under the Weltron brand Prinzsound sm8.jpg
A Prinzsound SM8, sold in the United States under the Weltron brand

Former businesses

Former businesses include:

Financial results

The following table shows the company's financial results: [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49]

DSG International plc financial results
Fiscal year2013201220112010200920082007200620052004200320022001200019991998
Fiscal year end date30/04/1328/04/1201/05/1101/05/1002/05/0903/05/0828/04/0729/04/0630/04/0501/05/0403/05/0327/04/0228/04/0129/04/0001/05/9902/05/98
Turnover (£ millions)8,213.98,186.78,154.48,531.68,227.08,545.97,929.77,072.06,9826,4915,750.54,888.24,688.23,889.93,156.32,791.9
Profit before tax (£ millions)(115.3)70.8(224.1)112.7(140.4)(192.8)295.1302.9336.8366.2278.6282.3647.1 [lower-alpha 1] 472.1 [lower-alpha 1] 231.3213.3
Profit for the period (£ millions)(168.1)(194.4)(245.3)57.3(219.3)(259.7)2.4211.7243.1289.4207.8211.2602.6413.7186.2166.4
Basic earnings per share (pence)(4.4)(4.3)(6.6)1.7(10.2)(14.5)10.911.712.614.410.711.031.522.541.1 [lower-alpha 2] 36.9 [lower-alpha 2]
  1. 1 2 The above trend profits for 2000 and 2001 were primarily attributable to profits on disposal of Freeserve shares.
  2. 1 2 Pre stock split

See also

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References

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  6. 1 2 "History". Dixons Retail. Wayback Machine. 15 April 2012. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 11 November 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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