Currys (branded under the name Currys PC World from 2010 to 2021) operates as an electronic retailer, and aftercare provider that operates across both the United Kingdom and Ireland, with a focus on consumer electronics, white goods, mobile phones and computers.
It was founded as a bicycle dealer from 1927. Currys increased the variety of products sold, and in the 1960s, it became a major retailer of electrical household items. In 1984 , the company was acquired by a another retailer Dixons, as well as it was then that the Currys brand was adopted by all of the outlets of the business. Since 2008, the company moved away from stores in towns to more extensive out-of-town locations with Currys PC World. Currys PC World name. The Currys PC World brand was created, merging the operations of Currys along with Dixon’s PC World under one umbrella. Following the creation of Dixons Carphone in 2014, the stores were given Carphone Warehouse departments. In July, it was announced 2020 that the entire Currys PC World locations will be rebranded as Currys.
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History
The beginning of the year
Henry Curry started to make bicycles in Leicester in 1884. Currys was officially incorporated into a company in 1927, when four of his brothers merged The Louth Bicycle Company, and the loose association of stores that the brothers were running following their father’s retirement in 1909, along with The company based in Nottingham, the Campion Cycle Company.
In the 1940s, shops offered a variety of items, including bicycles, radios, toys and even gramophones.
In addition, under the direction between 1967 between 1984 and 1967 under the direction of Dennis Curry, grandson of Henry Curry, the company was able to expand significantly and become an important high-street retailer of white goods and televisions (refrigerators as well as washing machines and other household appliances) In 1984, Currys Group plc had 570 shops, which was twice more than the company that was later to purchase it.
The year 1984 was when Currys became part of Dixons (another electrical retail chain that is which is now Currys Plc) however, it retained its own brand identity. Then, in April of 2006 Dixons Stores Group declared that their Dixons stores, with the exception of Ireland and in duty-free zones at airports were to be rebranded as Currys.digital (later change the name to Currys Digital). In Ireland the Dixons stores in Ireland were changed to Currys on August 8, 2008.
Prior to the Dixons change of branding, the chain was a small chain with just a handful of town centre stores compared to its vast number of mega stores located out-of-town. On January 17, 2007, the chief executive of the group John Clare announced that when the leases for the remaining ‘Currys High St’ stores (not the revamped Currys.digital shops) expire and it was unlikely to renew them, therefore, the stores would be shut down at the earliest time.
Currys PC World
Dixons Retail began a trial that combined Currys as well as PC World shops in 2008. In the Dixons Carphone Christmas 2015-2016 results update to shareholders, Sebastian James, group chief executive, announced that during the next financial year, the format of a three-in-one store (shops with Currys, PC World and Carphone Warehouse branding under one building) will be introduced across the entire portfolio of the company across both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
Rebirth of Currys as the sole brand
After reorganisations in the years 2020-2021 Dixons Carphone announced that the Currys PC World stores would be rebranded as Currys in the month of October 2021.