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Dixons Retail plc (LSE: DXNS) is a British company and one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in Europe. The company operates Dixons.co.uk as well as Dixons Travel, Currys, Currys.digital, PC World and Electro World stores along with many other brands across Europe including: Pixmania, Equanet and Advent Computers. The company, formerly known as Dixons Stores Group plc and later DSGi, specialises in selling high technology consumer electronics products, audio-video equipment, PCs, small and large domestic appliances, photographic equipment, communication products and related financial and after sales services (e.g. extended service agreements). They also sell other products and services such as electrical products, spares, repairs, mobile services, online digital photo processing, pre-recorded media and childcare equipment. Dixons’ main competitors are pan-European electrical retailer MediaMarkt, Best Buy Europe and Kesa Electricals plc, which owns Comet and Darty. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
History Early yearsDixons was founded by Charles Kalms and Michael Mindel in 1937 in the High Street in Southend under the name of Dixons Studios Limited. The name Dixons, selected randomly from the telephone directory, was sufficiently short to fit above the small shop front. During the early 1940s Dixons set up seven studios around London but by the end of the War the business was reduced to a single studio in Edgware.Stanley Kalms, the son of the founder, joined the business in 1948 and started advertising the Dixons products in the press. In 1950 the company started selling cameras and in 1957 opened a new head office and buying centre in Edgware to accommodate the staff dealing with 60,000 mail order customers and to provide administrative back-up for its six stores. Dixons was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1962 changing its name at that time to Dixons Photographic Limited. It bought out competitors, Ascotts, in 1962 and Bennetts, in 1964. In 1967 Dixons bought an 85,000 sq ft (7,900 m) colour processing laboratory in Stevenage. Charles Kalms was succeeded by his son Stanley in 1971. In 1972 Dixons acquired another competitor, Wallace Heaton, and in 1974 it opened its Stevenage distribution centre. 1990sIn 1993 Dixons bought Vision Technology Group (VTG), operating under the PC World brand at Croydon, Lakeside Shopping Centre, Brentford and Staples Corner. Later that year the company sold VTG’s mail order division, Dixons US Holdings Inc and Supasnaps. It opened its first Tax Free store at Heathrow Terminal 3 in 1994 and then later that year launched The Link, the company’s first venture into communications. The Head office was moved to Hemel Hempstead. In 1996 DSG bought DN Computer Services, a computer reseller business. It also acquired the retail assets of Harry Moore Ltd, an Irish electrical retailer. Cellnet bought a 40% stake in The Link in 1997. Also that year the Dixons website was launched. In 1998 Freeserve, a free internet service, was launched: it was later sold to France Telecom and renamed Wanadoo. DSG bought Elkjøp ASA, a leading Nordic retailer, in 1999. In 2002 DSG bought UniEuro, a leading Italian-based electrical retailer, and Genesis Communications, a mobile phone service provider. DSG opened its first Electro World store in Hungary. Further expansion came in 2005 when DSG bought an interest in Eldorado Group, the largest electrical retailer in Russia and Ukraine, with an option to buy the rest by 2011 at a fixed price of $1.9 billion USD (£1 billion GBP). In 2006 DSG was awarded The Queen’s Award for Enterprise. The company announced that the Dixons brand would continue purely online and that all high-street stores will be rebranded Currys.digital. Dixons also bought 75% of Fotovista, a French photographic business. In January 2008 DSG announced that it would stop selling analogue TVs. Only Integrated Digital Televisions would be sold, in an effort to get consumers ready for the digital switchover. However, despite claiming they stopped selling analogue TVs, customers were able to purchase analogue TVs until September 2008 when current stock was cleared. In many cases, customers were sold a digital set top box when they purchased an analogue TV. In May, Dixons announced that it would close 77 of its 177 UK Currys.digital shops as their building leases expire over the next five years. The reduction reflected the news that US Electrical rival Best Buy was seeking to establish itself within the UK. In December 2008 DSG made 600 field engineers redundant 250 found alternative positions within the company and 350 did not. PC World stores reported holding huge amounts of unrepaired LCD and plasma screens which were preventing store profitability because of time-to-fix guarantees. Staff claimed tech-guy redundancies to be much higher than the official DSG press releases report. DSG also hit back at claims they are playing Scrooge for classing Christmas Day as a normal working day. In January 2009 PC World Store Managers posted private internal memos on the message boards of pocket-lint.co.uk revealing "...backlogs, shortages, management gaps...", a pressure to reduce full-time staff and B2B service closures following a huge overspend on store refurbishments and referred customers to outside companies. On Monday 12 January all shopping websites were closed for around 24 hours causing concerns to the DSGi management. Following the mountain of problems that had been rumoured on websites and in other media, the managing directors of Currys and The Tech Guys both left the company before poor trading announcements Financial pressures hit DSGi and Computer Weekly rated the business as risky. Trading updates on 15 January 2009 showed sales were overall down 10%. In February DSGi trialled a Currys and PC World store merger. The two retailers owned by DSGi never merged stores to prevent opposition from Best Buy snapping up spare units. But since the credit crunch had opened up a wave of spare out-of-town units left by MFI, Woolworths and others, it could seem impractical to hold onto units next door to each other. Branch Managers complained of very little staff left in the stores following the targeted 95 million pounds of savings ordered by John Browett. The recent axe thrown at the service side of the company was reflected in a recent customer survey when the DSGi group took the bottom 3 positions for customer service, despite spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on the "FIVES" training program, which has also raised much controversy over whether it is designed around raising profit margins rather than actually providing better customer service, as John Browett claims. PC Retail magazine reported that "stock shortages at DSGi group will now pave the way for turmoil and fuel the collapse rumours". Credit insurers have dramatically reduced credit. In March 2009 the credit insurer Euler Hermes rapidly slashed cover, with DSGi being the worst hit. DSGi still continued to play down the problems. DSGi brand Equanet, part of the group that owns Currys and PCWorld, has failed to make the second round of the tender stage for a £6bn public sector framework agreement due to a lack of business growth over the last 36 months. Equanet is the third largest supplier on the current agreement and has seen a sales decline and it’s in-house engineering teams dispand in favour of contracting staffing arrangements. In November the techguys manager and Manager of Techguys sales leave the company after making a further tech guys redundant. The tech guys now outsource most of their work to agencies. For the second time this year (2010), Best Buy is linked to tabling a bid to take over the running of DSGi. In April 2010; Currys, Dixons and PC World cut ties with their credit provider for a period of 3–6 weeks in which they transitioned to a new provider offering better terms. This did not affect sales dramatically. DSGi close the technical call centre in Nottingham with over 450 redundancies DSGi secured exclusive rights to sell the Apple iPad in the UK along with Apple’s own retail stores and the few Best Buy stores in the UK (as the UK retailer Carphone Warehouse which has joint ownership of the UK’s Best Buy stores, has a long standing agreement with Apple to sell their products) for a 60 day period when the iPad launched in April 2010. As expected, demand for the device was extremely high and so not all PC World & Currys stores were able to stock the device, however sales are predicted to be extremely high. Exact sales data is yet to be released. As Britain’s biggest electrical retailer DSG International concedes it made a mistake in 2005 when it changed its name from the iconic high street Dixons signature. As such, DSG International is now reverting back to the Dixons Brand. This coincides with a return to profitability, with a £112.7m full-year, pre-tax profit against a £123.6m loss in the previous year. Although, as part of its financing terms shareholders will have to wait a little longer before dividends are resumed, unless certain trading performance criteria are met. Furthermore DSG/Dixons cut its net debt from £477.5m to £220.6m in the year to May following a successful £291.3m rights issue. At the half way point in CEO John Browett’s original four year turnaround program things appear to be proceeding as planned but the raising of VAT to 20% at this critical economic period and the impact of Best Buy opening several more shops may cause difficulties for the electronic retailer. There is still speculation of further redundancies in the TechGuys side of the business during an anticipated revamp during early 2011, to be named Know How However Dixons retail did further state that this was not the case and that there would be an increased number of services when the company completely re-launches it’s services proposition in the new year. The company’s structure is detailed below. Advent is a computer brand operated by Dixons Retail plc and makes electrical appliances such as notebooks, desktop PCs and tablet PCs. Black is a high-end electronics retail store opened by Dixons in late 2010. The first main store was in Birmingham, England. The biggest electrical retailer is now opening megastores for more of a massive range of products from the smallest items to the biggest. The biggest Currys Megastore is in West Thurrock - Currys Megastore - Lakeside Retail Park, West Thurrock, Grays, Essex RM20 1WN. It consists of two floors with rented floor space to other companies, such as Blackberry, Apple and TomTom. It is said to be the biggest store owned by Dixons Retail plc.  Currys is the UK’s largest electrical retailer. It also has stores in the Republic of Ireland. The company’s primary market is white and brown goods, but also sells small appliances, personal computers and mobile phones. Currys specialises in home electronics and household appliances. Currys is known for slogan "Currys, No Worries", but is now replaced by "We Can Help". Currys Sponsors The Simpsons on Sky1 from 2009–present.  Currys Digital is the rebranded name for Dixons retail outlets in the UK (excluding Ireland and the Dixons Travel stores operating in UK airports). Currys Digital is branded as a specialist division of Currys aimed at technology-focused consumers with a product range including cameras, personal computers, audio and video equipment.  Dixons Travel is the number one technology retailer in UK’s airports, with a total of 31 stores in the UK and Europe.  DSG Ireland has stores in major cities of the Republic of Ireland. DSG Ireland announced that they will not adopt the new Currys.digital branding for high-street stores, instead retaining the traditional Dixons branding, with Currys being used exclusively for large-format superstores. This decision was later reversed, and all Dixons stores have been rebranded to Currys, except the one in the Jervis Shopping Centre, which became a PC World. Electro World is DSG’s chain of electrical superstores in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Poland and Greece. In Hungary the first 43,000 sq ft (4,000 m) hyperstore opened in Budaörs, a town in the Budapest metropolitan area, in 2002. In the Czech Republic the first Electro World store opened in Praha Zlicin in 2002. In Poland the first Electro World store was opened in October 2005 at the Targowek commercial centre in Warsaw. More stores have since opened in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. Electro World operates a Central Europe distribution centre just outside Brno in the Czech Republic. The 28,000 square feet (2,600 m) warehouse is the largest warehouse for non-food goods in that country. In 2009 DSGi has withdrawn from Hungary and Poland selling all their ElectroWorld outlets.  Logik is another own-brand used by DSG on low-cost consumer electronics. Logik’s product range includes Set top boxes, Cables, White Goods, TVs, MP3 Players and headphones. Logik was the first company to market a TV with a built in iPod dock.  Matsui was DSG’s Own brand of low-cost electronics sold exclusively in DSG’s Outlets. Its range included TV’s, DVD Players, Cables, White Goods and blank media. Matsui has now been rebranded as the Currys Essentials range, which offers basic appliances and gadgets for a low budget price. Partmaster is a specialist retailer of spares, consumables and accessories for brown and white goods with over 21 years experience in retailing electrical products. It stocks over 1 million lines. Kotsovolos is an electrical retailer in Greece. Since September 2009 it also operates PC City as a Store-in-store franchise. As of 2009 PC City exist only in Greece (Athens) and they operate inside Kotsovolos stores. Elgiganten ("Electronics Giant") operates stores across Sweden, Denmark and the Faroe Islands selling white goods, consumer electronics, Personal Computers, communications products and related services. Elkjøp ("Electronics Purchase") operates smaller, medium, big and XXL sized retail stores across Norway selling white goods, consumer electronics, Personal Computers, communications products and related services. Gigantti ("Gigant") operates retail stores across Finland selling white goods, brown goods, consumer electronics, personal computers, communications products and related services. Lefdal Lavpris operates larger retail stores across Norway selling white goods, brown goods, consumer electronics, Personal Computers, communications products and related services. UniEuro operates stores mostly in the north west and north east of Italy. The stores sell a mixture of high technology consumer electronics, personal computers, domestic appliances, photographic equipment, communication products and related services. DSG Insurance Services issues insurance companies with gift cards with which their customers can purchase replacement goods covered under insurance agreements. DSGI Sourcing provides a sourcing service for key customers.  Main article: PC World (retailer)
PC World is a specialist chain of computer superstores. PC City exists in continental Europe as an extension of the PC World chain. Beginning with the acquisition of Ei System in Spain, the company has expanded over the years and now has a presence in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Sweden (website only). DSG closed its French stores in June 2007. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : White goods shops |
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