17 Facts About Dixons Retail

Dixons Retail plc was one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in Europe.

Dixons Retail was listed on the London Stock Exchange 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 United Kingdom and Ireland and 322 in Northern Europe.

Dixons Retail was founded as a photographic studio by Charles Kalms and Michael Mindel in the High Street in Southend under the name of Dixons Retail Studios Limited, a company registered in October 1937 with share capital of £100.

The name Dixons Retail, selected randomly from the telephone directory, was sufficiently short to fit above the small shop front.

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Dixons Retail was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1962, changing its name at that time to Dixons Retail Photographic Limited.

In 1972, Dixons Retail bought another competitor, Wallace Heaton, and in 1974, it opened its Stevenage distribution centre.

In 1984 Dixons acquired Currys, a retail chain with 570 shops selling electrical and other household goods; Currys retained its separate brand identity.

In February 1993, Dixons Retail bought Vision Technology Group, operating under the PC World brand at Croydon, Lakeside Shopping Centre, Brentford and Staples Corner.

Dixons Retail opened its first duty free store at Heathrow Terminal 3 in 1994, and later that year launched phone store The Link, the company's first venture into communications.

In November 1996, Dixons Retail bought DN Computer Services, a computer reseller business.

In October 2002, Dixons bought UniEuro, an Italian-based electrical retailer, and Genesis Communications, a mobile phone service provider.

Dixons Retail opened its first Electro World store in Hungary in February 2002.

Dixons Retail announced that the Dixons brand would continue purely online and that all high street stores would be rebranded Currys.

In May 2014, Dixons Retail announced a merger, that soon came to pass, with Carphone Warehouse; the combined company would have market capitalisation of around £3.

Dixons Retail is structured according to the international locations of its businesses and brands, as detailed below:.

Since the Prinz brand was introduced in the 1950s, Dixons Retail has used a number of own brand names for products sold in its stores.