Dixons to exit High Street

By MICHAEL CLARKE
Updated:

 

THE Dixons brand, synonymous with electrical retailing for over 70 years, is to disappear from the UK's High Streets.

Dixons store

Around 190 Dixons store will be rebranded as 'Currys.digital' as part of a huge portfolio shift by parent company DSG International.

The Dixons brand will only be used for online retailing, highlighting the importance of the internet to the future of the business.

Dixons is still Europe's largest electrical retailer but has seen its traditional market undercut by online retailers who have been able to offer cheaper prices.

The brand had been operating a duel pricing policy, offering different prices for the same good through its High Street and online divisions, leading to confusion among customers.

The chain sells everything from camcorders to plasma TVs, DVD players to laptops, but has been cutting back on the number of its loss-making high street stores in recent years.

DSG, which also owns Currys, PC World and The Link, lost patience with small shops after disappointing sales. In April 2004, 106 loss-making Dixons stores were axed in an overhaul which reduced its high street presence by a third.

Currys.digital will offer many of the same gadgets as Dixons, but will extend the range by offering products such as kitchen appliances.

Dixons started life in 1937 as a photographic studio in Southend. By 1950 it was the largest photographic in the country, before moving into consumer electronics in 1960.

It became the first retailer to sell a Sony Walkman and a video recorder in the 1970s, and acquired the Currys' brand in 1984.

DSG chief executive John Clare said: 'Customer buying behaviours are developing with the growth in broadband usage and, as a Group, we constantly adapt and innovate to support how our customers shop. Customers of both brands will have greater opportunity to buy what they want, where they want and how they want - backed by our commitments on price, range and service.'

The company said the move would enable the two brands to 'clearly differentiate their approach through two channels to market'.

The £7m rebranding programme will start next month and all staff currently working in the Dixons stores will transfer to Currys. There will be 550 Currys' branded stores following the change.

Six Dixons stores in the Republic of Ireland are unaffected by the rebranding, as are Dixons' 21 tax-free airport stores. DSG employs more than 40,000 people at stores in the UK and Europe.

Recent results for DSG showed profits fell by a fifth to £106m in the six months to November amid weak sales. Low levels of consumer confidence and the sluggish housing market has hit sales of refrigerators, dishwashers and other 'white goods'.

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