Dixons Retail
 |
|
| Private company | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Fate | Merged with Carphone Warehouse |
| Successor | Dixons Carphone |
| Founded | October 1937 |
| Defunct | 6 August 2014 |
| Headquarters | Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, UK |
|
Key people
|
Lord Kalms (Life President) John Allan (Chairman) Sebastian James (chief executive) |
| Products |
Brown goods White goods Telecommunications Information Technology Cameras Consumer Electronics |
| Revenue | £8.213 billion (2013) |
| £136.0 million (2013) | |
| £168.1 million (2013) | |
|
Number of employees
|
33,000 (2014) |
| Website | www.dixonsretail.com |
Dixons Retail plc was one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in Europe. In the UK, the company operated Currys, Currys Digital, PC World (with stores increasingly dual-branded 'Currys PC World'), Dixons Travel and its service brand Knowhow. Dixons Retail's Nordic and central European business was operated under the Elkjøp umbrella, and it also operated Kotsovolos in Greece. The company was listed on the and was a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index until its merger with Carphone Warehouse on 7 August 2014 to create Dixons Carphone.
At the time of its merger in 2014, Dixons Retail had 530 outlets in the UK and Ireland, and 322 in northern Europe.
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 (e.g. extended service agreements, set-up and installation and repairs) to the techno-illiterate. It also sold other products and services, electrical products, spares, mobile services and extended warranties.
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. 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 second world 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 company's products in the press.
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Wikipedia