Currys PLC is a leading omnichannel retailer of technology products and services, operating online and through 720 stores in 6 countries. Its shares have a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: CURY), have a market cap of £700m and are a constituent of the FTSE 250 index.
We were delighted to welcome Bruce Marsh, CFO, Dan Homan, Director of Investor Relations and Joe Saunders, Investor Relations Manager, to the latest Yellowstone Advisory webinar. The team outline the company strategy, recent performance as reported at the full year results on 27 June and discuss future prospects for the company. A recording of the webinar is available here.
Currys performed well over the last year with Nordics getting back on track after a strong year, the Greek business was disposed of for an attractive price and the UK business is showing good momentum. In terms of outlook the business is planning prudently but confidently for the future, the focus is on growing profits and cash generation, the balance sheet is in good shape and the company believes it’s in a good position for the current and future years.
There are four pillars to the Currys strategy as follows: Capable and Committed Colleagues; Easy to Shop; Customers for life; and Grow Profits. Currys believes its colleagues are its most important asset and so is investing heavily in tools, training, wellbeing, management and rewards and has consequently benefitted from improvements in engagement levels. Current engagement scores from colleagues would place Currys in the top 10% of companies globally and the top 5% within the UK, a position they are particularly pleased to have achieved. The next part of the strategy is being easy to shop and this starts with getting the retail fundamentals of range, price and availability right. Progress has been made across all three metrics with a particular step up in availability. Easy to Shop is also about being available where customers want and the Currys Omni channel strategy is key in delivering this. Over 2/3 of Currys customers want to use stores as part of their shopping journey.
The third strategy pillar is keeping customers for life. This is centred around providing complimentary services to the products sold which are high margin recurring revenue streams. Customer purchases are helped by the provision of credit, products can be delivered and installed, repair and recycling services are offered…
