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Dixons Retail Case Study

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Dixons Retail PLC Planning for a Multichannel Future
Dixons has grown from a one-man band into a fully orchestrated international retail and service operation, which attracts over 100 million shoppers to its stores and online businesses. How did the company get started and then develop into Europe’s leading specialist electrical retailers? This case explores the significance of adopting a market-orientated approach to planning in developing a family of successful international retail brands.
Background: start-up to market leader
Dixons started out in the photography business during challenging trading times in the early 1940s. By the 1960s the original photographic studio had developed into a relatively large public limited company, with an expanding mail order business and high street retail operation. The business continued to grow in the UK, by opening high street stores selling photographic equipment, computers and other high-tech gadgetry. In the 1990s, the acquisition of PC World, opening tax-free travel stores in airports (Dixons Travel), and expansion into European markets with the acquisition of Elkjøp, a leading Nordic retailer, enabled the business to grow further and more rapidly. More acquisitions in Italy (UniEuro), Russia and the Ukraine and expansion into Ireland, Greece and the Czech Republic enabled Dixons Retail plc to become Europe’s largest specialist electrical retailer and services company, which employs over 38,000 people spread over 26 countries (see Table C3.1 for details of Dixons Retail brands).

Table C3.1 Dixons Retail plc pan-European Brands Location | UK & Ireland | Nordics | Other international | e-commerce | Brands | Currys, PC World, Dixons Travel, DSGI Business | Elkjøp, Gigantti, El Giganten, Lefdal | Unieuro (Italy), Kotsovolos (Greece), Electro World (Czech Republic and Slovakia) | Pix mania

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