The chief executive said the retailer had plans to mitigate some of the “new and unwelcome” costs coming from changes to employers’ National Insurance contributions, National Living Wage increases and inflation-based increases in business rates.

“We’ve already got plans to deal with about half of these headwinds, and we’re working hard to get after the rest, which will inevitably mean further cost reduction,” he said.

“We’ve got growing momentum at Currys. We won’t allow this to be interrupted,” he added.

His comments come as the retailer revealed it had shrunk its pre-tax losses from £44m to £10m in the half year to 26 October as sales edged up 1% to £3.9bn.

Baldock warned the additional costs would lead to “inevitable” price rises, but that it was a “last resort” for the business.

“It was an unhelpful budget for jobs, prices, investment and growth, but I also understand that the government have difficult decisions to make, and my job is to make sure that Currys is successful whoever’s in power,” he added.

Baldock is the latest boss to speak out on the extra costs it faces from Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ first Budget.

The Entertainer CEO Andrew Murphy told Retail Gazette that the larger tax bill it faces has “changed what we feel about our opportunities for growth and the viability of our own estate”.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

But it also noted the impact of recent UK government policy changes, which are set to increase its costs by as much as £32m.

This includes a £9m hit from higher National Living Wage increases, £12m from a rise in National Insurance contributions, £2m from inflation-driven business rate tax hikes, and up to £9m in additional supplier costs.

On the “new and unwelcome headwinds from UK government policy”, CEO Alex Baldock said: “These will add cost quickly and materially, depress investment and hiring, boost automation and offshoring, and make some price rises inevitable”.

The electricals giant reported a 6% rise in UK and Ireland sales for the six months to 26 October, driven by strategic initiatives and market share gains. Across the group, total revenue reached £3.9m, up 1% year-on-year and 2% on a like-for-like basis, offsetting a 2% decline in its Nordic operations.

Adjusted EBIT surged 52% to £41m across the group, with the UK&I division leading the way with a 53% profit boost.

Baldock said: “We’re very encouraged by our progress. Currys’ performance continues to strengthen, with profits and cashflow growing significantly, and the Group’s balance sheet is strong.”

He highlighted the retailer’s dominance in the AI laptop market, where it holds over 75% of the UK market share and said: “AI is a trend with a lot further to run”.

Mobile also continued to perform strongly, as iD Mobile subscribers numbers rose 32% year-on-year to 2 million.

Baldock added: “We made big improvements to both online and stores channels, customers continued to take more of the solutions and services that are valuable to them and to us, and such growth drivers as B2B and iD Mobile performed well. All this showed in growing sales, market share, gross margins and profits.

“We were well prepared for our Peak trading period, with healthy stock and market-beating, best-ever deals that show our unmatched importance to suppliers. We’re trading in line with expectations.”

As a result Currys has maintained its full-year guidance and expects to continue its trajectory of profit and cash flow growth, with the group targeting at least a 3% adjusted EBIT margin for the year, despite external challenges such as inflation and government policy changes.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

AO founder and chief executive John Roberts said: “I’m delighted to report another successful six months for AO during which our main B2C Retail business has returned to double digit growth alongside making more progress towards our medium-term ambition of delivering a PBT margin of over 5%.

“We’ve had a Morecambe and Wise summer sales period; all the right volumes just not in the right categories. The wet summer weather meant we sold fewer fridges and air conditioning units and more tumble driers than we had planned. Overall, our team did a fantastic job to play this out as a satisfying score draw.

“We also made good progress beyond our core MDA category, and I’m very encouraged with how our customers and members are responding to our improved range and value proposition in newer categories.

“Our laser focus on costs and efficiency remains which ensures, as planned, that profit grew faster than sales on the growth we’ve delivered.”

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

The new system will arrive in 100 of the retailer’s stores across the UK and Ireland by the end of the financial year, with 60 stores making the switch ahead of the key festive period.

The digital labelling will be managed by a centralised system and will improve the pricing accuracy and availability in stores.

Currys has also introduced a digital queuing system to its 298 store portfolio, allowing colleagues to process customer orders and better manage their wait time expectations to speak to a sales associate.

Other changes include extending store opening times by an extra 1,800 hours and narrowing the window for click and collect times from 28 days to 10 days.

Currys director of stores Matthew Speight said: “We’re ready to help all our customers enjoy amazing tech during what we know is our busiest trading period of the year. Our teams are excited by the new tools and improvements they’ve got to help them, help our customers.

“I’m looking forward seeing the benefits that digital queuing will bring in terms of improving the customer experience in-store, especially at our busiest periods. Also, we know Order & Collect is a really important proposition to customers over Christmas, so we’re excited to see the improvements come to life here.

“So many colleagues I speak to are very happy about the roll out of digital ticketing and the huge benefits that will bring to them and customers. In fact, everything in this plan is going to create an easier shopping experience for customers – and that’s really exciting too!”

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

M&S CEO Stuart Machin says the retailer is “very confident” about trading this year, while Tesco chief executive Ken Murphy says he’s “betting on a good Christmas” as customers display “a willingness to spend a little bit more to treat themselves”.

That positivity is shared in the department stores sector with Fortnum’s boss Tom Athron feeling “excited” about the upcoming season and John Lewis enjoying an earlier start to its Christmas sales.

Forecasts add credence to this positivity with VoucherCodes.co.uk predicting a 4% boost in sales this festive season to £88.3bn. Whilst this rise comes partly from inflation, it is also driven by a 1.4% rise in sales volume year-on-year.

However, the cost-of-living crisis and aftermath of the Budget still looms large. The Works CEO Gavin Peck warns that consumer confidence still remains “fragile” and that many will continue to shop “much later than usual in the run up to Christmas” or look to spread the cost.

Asda chair Lord Rose is also feeling somewhat cautious as he notes “the country’s had a tough year and we’ve had a change of government”.

“I hope now that they’ve heard the worst news about the Budget, people will want to have a time where they get together with their families and let’s hope that we see some growth in the economy. We’ve got to be positive.”

Retail Gazette takes a look at how retailers will fare across a host of sectors, from fashion to food and toys to electricals, as 25 December nears.

Fashion 

M&S’ Machin has good reason to feeling chipper this festive season.

“Our customers are anticipating they’re going to spend more this Christmas than last year,” he says.

M&S is going all out for party season. Machin says the retailer’s “most stylish seasonal clothing offer yet”, which includes sequin tops, mini skirts and capes, is performing well already.

Asos CEO José Antonio Ramos Calamonte says that the market is still “really volatile” although he adds that “things are a bit better in terms of consumer confidence” in recent months, especially in September when the colder weather hit.

However, budgets are still squeezed and some shoppers are trading down, according to the online boss.

“We have seen some consumers trading down to lower price points, which doesn’t really mean we have been reducing prices. It’s been that they have been focusing on lower price points.”

Matalan director of product development Laura Wiard says shoppers “are planning to spread out their spending and find great value in Black Friday offers”.

The fashion and home retailer launched its ‘Christmas at Matalan’ offer in store at the end of September and its online shop two weeks earlier than last year, responding to customer demand that kicked off in August. 

In terms of product trends, Calamonte says that burgundy clothing is “incredibly strong” for Asos, and predicts that 80s designs and embellishment will be big this Christmas. In menswear, he believes the “preppy, varsity look” will be “very, very strong”.

Wiard notes customers “have been loving novelty products this year” and she expects this to continue through the golden quarter.

“We’ve got plenty of novelty Christmas products to meet this demand – whether it’s our traditional winter knits, bold festive family PJs, or quirky, colourful decorations. 

2024’s hottest shoe trend – the Adidas Samba – will continue to drive sales at sports retailers over the festive period.

A spokesperson for JD Sports noted the retailer’s “terrace and retro running styles have been particularly in demand this year and we see this continuing into the Christmas period”. 

“Our premium athleisure collections have also proven popular in offering head-to-toe styles for all season,” they added.

Beauty

Both Boots and Superdrug are anticipating a bumper Black Friday (29 November) this year as customers look to spread the cost of Christmas.

Boots, which has over 22,000 promotions running this month, experienced “extremely high demand” which caused it website and app to crash when its Black Friday sale went live.

Superdrug is also placing a greater emphasis on its Black Friday sale this year, offering customers up to 70% off across more than 400 products.

The health and beauty chain’s chief commercial officer Simon Comins says: “Over recent years we have seen people shop earlier and earlier for Christmas.

“The cost-of-living crisis meant that shoppers were having to plan their Christmas spend and spread the cost over the months leading up to Christmas.”

“We expect the peak [trading] to be around Black Friday weekend but think sales will be consistent in the months leading up to Christmas, as people will look to spread the cost again this year.”

The retailer is expecting a flight to value. Comins says: “We expect our own-brand gifting range to feature heavily amongst our bestsellers this year, as consumers look for great quality gifts at great value.”

He also predicts that, on the back of social media trends, electrical healthcare tools will fare well, particularly its water flosser, which sold out last year.

“We have expectations that it will sell really well again this Christmas, so have released exciting new colourways,” Comins says.

Grocery

Tesco boss Ken Murphy says the grocery giant is “betting on a good Christmas” as customers begin to trade up and sales of its premium ranges soaring almost 15% in its first half.

He explains: “We track customer sentiment every week and while they’re not doing cartwheels down the hallways, they are in really good shape.

“You’re seeing a stability in customer sentiment from a grocery point of view, and also a willingness to spend a little bit more to treat themselves, and you see that reflected in our Finest sales growth.”

Similarly, Sainsbury’s boss Simon Roberts is also confident the supermarket chain will deliver another strong Christmas.

“What we’ve seen over the last three or four years through the pandemic and the inflation crisis, Christmas has been a time when people in the end want to be together with their friends and family and loved ones.

“There’s absolutely no complacency at all in our business. We’ve had three strong Christmases and we’re preparing for a fourth one to come.”

According to Sainsbury’s, convenience will be a big trend this year as only 21% of shoppers plan to cook everything from scratch on the big day.

Shoppers are also planning ahead with M&S seeing more of its shoppers pre-ordering products this year.

“Our Christmas food to order products sold faster than they’ve done in any other previous year,” notes Machin.

“I think we’re in a very, very good place. So we’re excited. We want to get ahead of the volume curve,” he adds.

Aldi explains shoppers want to experience “a little bit more extravagance” over the festive period, insisting its premium tier of luxury Specially Selected products provides them with “high quality, while also offering a significant saving against the equivalent products available at other more expensive retailers”.

The discounter also points out that shoppers are looking “more and more to spread the cost of Christmas,” and that it has been selling key frozen products including party food and frozen turkey from September onwards “to meet this demand”.

Department stores

Department stores are anticipating a sparkling golden quarter this year.

John Lewis boss Peter Ruis says “we expect to be fully up and running for Christmas with the biggest and best offer ever”.

The department store’s customer director Charlotte Lock says the department store is still riding high from the relaunch of Never Knowingly Undersold, which has given it “great momentum” coming into the golden period, with sales up 6% in September.

“We’re not we’re certainly not taking anything for granted, but we’re feeling very positive…We’ve invested more in Christmas than we ever have. Our Christmas shop is up 18% year on year.

“We’ve definitely still heard from customers that there is caution around spending on big ticket,” Lock adds. “It’s a very tough environment. We think that people are definitely waiting for deals. We’ve got all of the trade marketing plans to support that but we’re feeling cautiously optimistic.”

Fortnum & Mason boss Tom Athron says he’s feeling “excited” about this Christmas as consumers start to loosen their purse strings amid easing inflation.

Athron notes: “Compared to last year, when the peak of Christmas came very late, we are pleased to see that customers are shopping a little earlier and we have seen a strong start to the festive season.”

“Whilst the world feels like a challenging place presently, particularly economically, politically and internationally, we find that during tougher times our customers still come to Fortnum’s to seek small moments of joy for themselves and others.”

However, customers are likely to think much harder about where they spend their money this year. “We expect that many who shop with Fortnum’s will come to us for beautifully crafted items to gift their loved ones, though may shy away from the big-ticket items.

Athron is also expecting to see a rise in customers buying experiences over the quarter, such as “tickets to concerts or the theatre, or, here at Fortnum’s, tickets to supper clubs or a masterclass in our Food & Drink Studio”.

Homewares

Shoppers have started making their homes feel festive earlier this year. John Lewis’ Christmas Shop is already a hive of activity, with sales of decorations up 20% year on year.

Single bauble sales are up 40%, with its playful Battenberg cake, Quality Street tin, and disco ball cherries proving popular.

It’s a similar story at online department store Very.

Chief customer officer Jessica Myers says: “Our customers have already started buying items from our Christmas range, with more than 4,000 Christmas trees having already been bought.”

The Cotswold Company chief executive Ralph Tucker is feeling “quietly optimistic” and expects it to be a “good Christmas” for the retailer.

He cites positive macro indicators such as easy inflation and growing consumer sentiment, and expects its stores to prove popular.

“We expect our showrooms, including new locations in Bath and Stamford, to be really popular for last-minute accessories and gifts.”

“We are seeing customers making more considered purchases. Through our analysis of our Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest channels, we can see customers are planning their purchases more than ever.”

Gifts

Card Factory boss Darcy Willson-Rymer is conscious there will be greater diversity in budgets this year of people looking to celebrate the holiday.

“We’ve done quite a lot of work on range development so you’ll see some new card designs, new gifting ideas and also a lot more personalisation.”

“If you have a very modest Christmas budget, that’s okay, come to Card Factory, we can help you celebrate Christmas. If you’re feeling that you’ve got a little bit more to spend, then we have a breadth of range that balances out that quality and value.”

The Works chief executive Gavin Peck adds that while consumer confidence remains “fragile”, there will be a greater emphasis on value over the coming months.

“Consumers have shopped much later than usual in the run up to Christmas over the last couple of years, demonstrating their cautious approach to spending. 

“We have seen this with other seasonal events this year, such as Back to School, and therefore expect a similar approach to Christmas this year.”

The retailer is seeing strong demand in its 2 for £12 and 3 for £15 gifting ranges, with hobby horses and remote-control cars proving particularly popular.

Peck notes that BookTok has become “a big driver of sales across the book industry”.

“It’s incredible to see how quickly a title can go viral through this channel and we’re always on the lookout to see what the next trending title will be. We expect this to continue at Christmas.”

He predicts Boris Johnson’s somewhat controversial autobiography Unleashed is likely to capture attention ahead of the holiday period.

Toys 

Those buying toys are getting ahead of the game this Christmas, in part, to spread the cost.

Very’s Myers says: “Almost two thirds of customers say they buy gifts for children first, with our sales for toys increasing by 67%, on average, in October when compared to September.”

The Entertainer head of buying Steven Pearson says: “Within our top toys for Christmas list, we have tried to curate products with a wide range of price points that will benefit all but would always advise our shoppers to check our website for even better prices and deals as we head towards Christmas.”

Film related are also predicted be a big trend this year due to the release of sequels of Sonic the Hedgehog, Moana, and Paddington. according to Pearson.

The Entertainer is also seeing strong sales of “heritage” licensed toys such as Hot Wheels, Star Wars, Transformers, Spiderman, Marvel, Littlest Pet Shop, Peppa Pig and Paw Patrol.

But toys aren’t just for kids. Hamleys senior buyer Karen Dennett says “kidult” toys is a trend which has been “growing and growing” for the last five years, and that’s “not showing any signs of slowing down”.

The toy store is feeling “very positive this year” with the Moana Singing Doll and Hamleys Huggables Plush Selection expected to fly off the shelves, Dennett shares.

She adds: “It’s going to be a good Christmas”.

Electricals

Currys believes AI technology and retro products will dominate the bestseller list this year. 

The retailer’s chief commercial officer Ed Connolly says the arrival of AI will be a “significant driver of consumer upgrades, especially in computing and mobile categories, as Microsoft, Apple, Google, Samsung and other generative AI tools arrive on new devices”. 

He adds that its partnership with Microsoft on the rollout of Copilot and Copilot+ PCs helped drive its share of the UK Windows laptop market to almost 50%.

Connolly notes that retro products are also performing well at Currys.

“Sales of Polaroid cameras are up 110% between January and August, as well as increased sales of digital point-and-shoot options. 

“We have seen sales spikes of 24% year on year for record players between April and August.”

The trend is set to continue over the festive period, with Oasis’ LP albums set to be a bestseller following news in August the Gallagher brothers were reuniting for a host of summer tour dates next year.

Meanwhile, kitchen appliances will be a big trend over the golden quarter for AO.com, particularly coffee machines and air fryers, according to Nick Small, the retailer’s head of category for small domestic appliances.

“Air fryer sales are still strong, and we envisage they will be a big seller again this year while rice cookers could also be another appliance to look out for,” he says.

Small expects shoppers to start looking early for bigger gifts and use the Black Friday sale to “grab a deal early”.

The shopping event is set to be bigger this year, with PwC predicting sales to soar 37% to £7.1bn, helped by actual Black Friday falling after pay day this year.

According to PwC’s Black Friday research, tech will be the top spending category with almost half (49%) expected to make a purchase, followed by fashion (38%), and health & beauty (28%).

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

The Australian electricals and homewares retailer, which has over 300 stores worldwide, has had a lengthy period testing the waters in Northern Ireland for the last 15 years.

While the rural suburbs of Dudley may seem like an unusual launchpad for the retailer, which generated £4.6bn (AUS$8.86bn) in global sales last year, to make its English debut, there is method in the madness from one of Australia’s largest retailers.

“This has definitely been a market that we’ve wanted to get into for a little while,” notes Harvey Norman UK managing director Lachlan Roach as he takes Retail Gazette on a tour of the new 57,000 sq ft store inside the former Debenhams store.

He admits that that although it searched all across the country, “density for us was a big thing, and then diverse population was very important because it allows us to demonstrate a range of different products with different tastes”.

This has landed Harvey Norman in Dudley. Roach also points out that the West Midlands is “literally four hours” away from anywhere in the country “from a logistics standpoint”.

With a second store close to being signed, we find out more about Harvey Norman and its plans for the UK.

Helping shoppers create rooms

Founded in 1982, Harvey Norman has built its empire selling electricals, furniture, tech appliances and bedding across Australia.

Roach, who has worked his way up the ranks at the retailer since 2002, describes the retailer as “a little bit of John Lewis, a little bit of Currys, a little bit of Sofology, a little bit of Bensons or Dreams”.

“It’s a combination of a few of them, because no one does the four categories in Great Britain anymore in this way,” he adds.

The Merry Hill store – which Roach notes is one of the smallest of the brand’s eight global flagships – houses a range of furniture such as sofas, dining sets, bedroom suites and mattresses, alongside an assortment of home appliances, technology, and entertainment products from big brands including Miele, Samsung, Apple and Dyson.

Commenting on the wide range of goods available, which spans 115-inch TVs and Dolce & Gabbana toasters to Silentnight mattresses and linens, Roach explains the retailer “really tries and helps people create rooms”. He says people may come in for a mattress but can “walk out with the whole room”.

Harvey Norman prides itself on having an “offering for everybody”.

Roach says: “We build these stores…which definitely has a focus on that mid [price point] with a flare to the upper, but our best sellers, unsurprisingly, are always in that entry to midpoint where a lot of customers are comfortable to shop in.”

Harvey Norman has been careful not to overwhelm the customer with product by adding a partition in the store, which gives the effect of two separate home and technology stores within the one unit.

Standing in the quieter home furnishings side of the store, Roach explains: “We do intentionally create a different shopping environment out here, out of the sort of hustle and bustle of technology and entertainment.”

Best in brands

Harvey Norman is a big brand retailer and Roach explains there are “over 100 brands in store” and that goes up to “over 5,000 different SKUs” available online.

The retailer positions itself “on the forefront” of new technologies, pointing out LG’s new range of portable TVs and the Asko washer dryer stack that features a pull-out ironing board.

The store’s technology and appliances ranges have been organised by brands such as Smeg, Miele, Samsung and Siemens.

“We find people like to shop in different ways. Customers are doing more and more research so there’s less people coming in that don’t know what they’d like to buy in a certain category,” says Roach.

Small domestic appliances have also been categorised by purpose, divided into coffee and breakfast sections to separate the De’Longhi espresso machine from the Russell Hobbs toasters and kettles.

Harvey Norman seems to sell most things, but shoppers won’t find anything own-brand in the store.

“We don’t do any of our own brands. Everything is from a manufacturer,” says Roach. “We don’t build a thing…we build a great store to showcase what the brands do.

“These brands spend millions and millions of pounds in design, research, marketing and partnerships so we push the brands as hard as we can to come up with great new products to bring to the market.”

Roach points out that many of the store’s fixtures have been customised for the Merry Hill location, including its pull-out display that he “drew on whiteboard” designed to show off Smeg’s many fridge colour variations.

“Being a global brand, we’ve got close brand partnerships [and] we work with them to do in-store executions as well.”

“Smeg have got something like 13 or 14 different colours of fridges so instead of having 14 different fridges on the floor, we’ve been able to work with them on creating this display that’s got the multiple doors on.”

Harvey Norman’s UK plans

Harvey Norman has not just grown in Australia. It also trades in Malaysia, Singapore, Slovenia, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland.

Roach explains the UK has “definitely been a market that we’ve wanted to get into for a little while”, but shares that factors such as a global pandemic put its plans on pause.

“Getting to Ireland was somewhat of a starting point, and then, for a number of different reasons along the way, the timing hasn’t been right,” he says.

The West Midlands seems like an unlikely place for an international giant to make its mark in the UK, but its all part of Harvey Norman’s plan to achieve success in the country.

“When we did our research on the area, the West Midlands stood out to us,” he says, explaining “we can get to a lot of people really quickly, which should help us with brand awareness and getting more people through the store”.

“If you think about the density of the West Midlands compared to New Zealand…the West Midlands region is around 5 million people. We’ve got 46 stores in New Zealand for about 5 million people and then in Ireland, we’ve got 16 stores to about 5.2 million people.”

However, Roach sees more opportunity in the West Midlands and admits Harvey Norman is close to securing its second location near its UK head office in Sutton Coldfield.

“Then, we ideally would like to have a look around the southern part of Birmingham for that triangle kind of effect,” he says.

However, not every store will be as grand as its one in Merry Hill. Roach says some of the retailer’s Northern Ireland stores “have been running just with furniture and bedding as an offering”.

Roach is pretty tight-lipped about the company’s plans for the rest of the UK and insists that Harvey Norman will not rush into any aggressive expansion plans any time soon.

However, the Austrailian retail giant’s first store in England will have certainly captured the attention of many shoppers – and retail rivals – in the UK.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

The online electrical retailer reported an underlying pre-tax profit of £820,000, down from the £1.6m it reported in 2023. Adjusted EBITDA slipped from £2.3m to £2m.

It came as sales rose 9.3% to £58.8m, which it attributed in part to strong volume growth across major domestic appliances and consumer electronics.

However, Marks Electricals noted its average order value had dropped 9% as shoppers favoured non-premium products.

Looking ahead, the retailer expects to achieve £120m in sales with an EBITDA in excess of £4m.

It also estimates that the increase in national insurance employer contributions which take affect in April will cost the business £750,000 per year.

Marks Electricals chief executive Mark Smithson said: “The first half has included two of the largest structural changes the business has seen, the departure from Euronics and the implementation of our new ERP system, but despite these, we continued to remain profitable and cash generative.

“These investments, while involving short-term challenges, have been made to position the business for long-term success.

Smithson added: “As the consumer has continued to trade down, we have evolved our business to meet those needs, perhaps leaning too much into non-premium products, which has led to erosion in our premium average order value.

“The knock-on implications of this on our distribution costs are something that we need to actively address moving forward by pivoting back to our historically premium focussed operating model.

“Whilst this pivot back to premium is likely to have an impact on the speed of our revenue growth, we are focussed on continuing to execute our strategy of driving profitable market share gains, ultimately enabling the group to deliver long-term value creation and become the UK’s leading premium electrical retailer.”

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

Customers will be able to choose to spread the cost of their purchases through fixed monthly payments or via the buy now, pay later in store and online.

The Currys flexpay service, formerly Your Plan, is also now available on more categories and gives users better visability of their credit balance across previous purchases.

It comes as the electricals giant found that £1 in every £5 was spent using its flexible payment option exceeding the amount spend using a credit card.

Currys flexpay, which is powered by BNP Paribas Personal Finance, allows users “access to a range of low rate and interest free promotional credit offers on selected products”, the retailer said.

Consumer credit director Joshua Fabian-Miller said: “We’re committed to helping customers access and enjoy the latest technology, that keeps them connected, healthy, productive and entertained – flexpay is a key part of that mission.

“Currys flexpay makes it even easier for customers to spread the cost of their tech, at the point of need.

“I’d like to thank the customers and colleagues who helped us shape flexpay, and the teams across Currys and our partner BNP Paribas Personal Finance, who develop our credit product and help our customers pay at their pace.”

Currys shareholder Frasers Group was reported to have pitched its buy now, pay later offer to the electricals giant in June, alongside Asos, Boohoo and rival AO.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

The 57,000 sq ft flagship houses a range of luxury furniture, including sofas, dining sets, bedroom suites and mattresses, alongside an assortment of smaller items including kitchenware.

The space will also feature home appliances, technology, and entertainment items from brands such as Dyson, Shark, Apple, Samsung, LG, Miele and Sage, with dedicated areas for each product category, including a cooking appliance centre that has been specifically designed for Merry Hill.

• Related Story

  • 

    Harvey Norman: The Australian retail giant vying to shake up the UK

    18/11/2024 x 3:56 PM

Harvey Norman UK MD Lachlan Roach said: “With over 300 stores in eight countries across the globe, it will be no surprise that we have been wanting to make our entrance to the English market for a while.

“The opportunity we had to open in a key national destination like Merry Hill was not one to miss, and it makes for the perfect home for our flagship location.

“We’re a customer-centric brand, and Merry Hill has a vibrant community, so we are thrilled to bring both our extensive range of lifestyle, technology, and entertainment products and the exceptional service that Harvey Norman is renowned for worldwide.”

Harvey Norman also operates two stores in Northern Ireland.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter

The partnership, which marks a first for the electricals specialist, will enable it to sell EV chargers direct to shoppers, with products available online and across 50 of its flagship stores.

Currys senior buyer Zoe Lucid said: “With EV sales in the UK up more than 10% this year, this new partnership between Currys and Ohme chargers was a natural step to offer to our customers.

“Ohme’s award-winning chargers and reputation for excellent customer service meant it was the obvious choice for Currys’ customers helping them to make more sustainable choices combined with cutting-edge technology.”

The move comes after the retailer named Microsoft as its first UK retail repair partner in May, allowing customers with Microsoft Surface laptops to be able to get them repaired in-store.

Earlier this year, it also teamed up with Accenture and Microsoft to deliver its core cloud technology infrastructure to allow it to leverage the latest AI technologies.

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter