As Currys introduces it new electric vehicle charging partner, a company profile in the UK 360° report looks at how it grew from a bicycles retailer to selling the latest consumer technology products.
Currys was founded in 1884 to bring the technology of the moment – bicycles – to its customers. Today, 140 years later, it sells the latest consumer technology products – from household appliances to TV, audio, gaming and computing equipment – to shoppers across the UK and Europe.
Recently, the retailer announced a partnership with Accenture and Microsoft to use artificial intelligence technologies in its business, offering customers and staff personalised information and product suggestions while improving the post-sales experience.
Alex Baldock, Currys group CEO, said at the time: “AI is the biggest technological leap of our lifetime. Currys exists to help everyone enjoy amazing technology, so as well as bringing the benefits of AI to millions of customers, we’ll do the same to our own business.”
In its latest full-year results, to 29 April 2023, Currys reported a pre-tax loss of £450mn on sales of £9.5bn (-6%), following a £511mn writedown in goodwill. In the UK alone, EBIT came in at £170mn, 45% up on the previous year, as cost savings and profit margin improvements offset a decline in sales. But sales of £5.1bn were 8% down on the previous year. Sales, said Currys, were down in all of its markets outside Greece, “driven by a fall in consumer spending due to persistent inflation and rising interest rates, as well as a normalisation of spend on technology after strong growth during the pandemic.”
Baldock said: “Our market has been tough everywhere, with depressed demand, high inflation and unforgiving competition.” He added: “Our UK&I colleagues’ great work shone through in world class engagement scores; in another year of record customer satisfaction; in maintaining number one market share; and in more customers for life as we grew services.”
Currys says that two-thirds of its customers prefer to buy technology instore. In its 2022-23 financial year, 45% of sales were online in its UK & Ireland business. Its 727 stores in six countries include more than 300 in the UK.
During that year, it collected more than 1.6mn items for recycling – up by 51% on the previous year, in part thanks to its ‘cash for trash’ initiative. Its Currys Perks scheme has 11mn members, who account for more than half of its UK sales. Currys Perks members, says Currys, buy more frequently and have higher order values than non-members.
This profile first appeared in our first UK 360° report, which brings together the three central strands of RetailX research:
- UK ecommerce market
- Consumer behaviour analysis
- Retail performance through the RetailX Top100 list
The report offers a briefing on the UK market as a whole, how shoppers buy and want to buy, the retailers, brands and marketplaces that are succeeding in this market, and the services that the most successful provide to their customers.
Stay informed
Our editor carefully curates two newsletters a week filled with up-to-date news, analysis and research, click here to subscribe to the FREE newsletter sent straight to your inbox and why not follow us on LinkedIn to receive the latest updates on our research and analysis.
