Dixons renames itself Dixons
Everyone loves the name right?
DSGi shares are up slightly this morning after the retail group posted results for the year at the top end of expectations.
In the year ended 31 May 2010 DSGi, owner of PC World and Currys, made sales of £8,531.6m, up four per cent on last year or two per cent like-for-like. Pre-tax profit was up 61 per cent to £90.5m.
In the UK and Ireland sales were down five per cent at £4,013.5m but showed some improvement in the second half as the benefits of the shop revamp programme were felt.
The retail giant is two years into a store revamp programme that promises better service - not something the company has been known for - swankier stores and lower stock levels.
Some 200 stores have now been tarted up and another 80 should be ready for Christmas peak trading. By October 2010 two-thirds of stores will have been recently refitted. The new stores continue to outperform older ones with average gross profits up 20 per cent.
But its not just shops - 16 per cent of the group's sales, or £1.4bn, now comes from its various online stores. The programme also covers back office ops. The logistics and supply lines of PC World, Currys, CurrysDigital and Dixons Travel have been combined with one main fulfilment warehouse in Newark.
Although the company continues to have concerns about the economic outlook across Europe it expects its own profitability to continue to improve.
The DSGi strategy boutique has hilariously broken out the whale song and incense sticks, deciding the DSGi name is too cumbersome.
The company will instead be known as, er, Dixons Retail plc. The not-so-dramatic rebrand will need the nod from shareholders at the firm's AGM.
This, we're told, will "harness the strength of the Dixons name and to reflect the resurgence of the company. The Dixons name resonates strongly with suppliers, the market, and colleagues in a way that DSG international has not been able to."
The full statement is available here. ®
COMMENTS
Run that past me again?
They're promising better service, swankier stores and lower stock levels?
"We are so sorry, but we are regrettably unable to supply you with the gleaming piece of dream technology that you had the good taste and judgement to wish to purchase. But we hope that we have enriched your life by this fulsome apology and by your unsurpassable customer experience in our luxurious retail-service establishment."
Strong brand
"The Dixons name resonates strongly with suppliers, the market, and colleagues in a way that DSG international has not been able to"
Only highly paid management could come up with a strategy like that. If the Dixons name is so brilliant, why did they annex the name from the high street in favour of Currys.digital?
What does the D stand for again anyway? Oh yeah...
Is it just me?
Or do marketing phrases like 'reflect the resurgence of the company' make anyone else gag slightly?
They don't care...
They don't give a damn, and why should they? None of the outlets in that group are places any sensible person should set foot in. But the days when the loss of a few customers counted for anything are long gone. No matter how bad their reputation, it only takes one more 'unbeatable offers' TV advert to have the punters queuing up at the door again, cash in hand.
Perhaps, as a population, we get the shops we deserve.
Is that the same "Dixons" moniker
that a mere 4 years ago was considered so tarnished that it needed to be removed from the High Street altogether?
