Dixons’ future focus on XL format
More closures to come as out-of-town offer expands
Dixons will close more of its current high street stores as it migrates to an out-of-town offer built around the Dixons XL superstore format.
The UK’s largest electricals retailer, which has announced plans to close 106 of the smallest Dixons stores over the next three months, believes its future lies in retail parks and edge-of-town locations as UK consumers increasingly buy hi-fis, TVs and DVD players away from the high street.
The current wave of closures will reduce the store count in the Dixons chain to 214 locations. Dixons chief executive John Clare told journalists he expects to reduce the numbers further over the next seven to 10 years, ending up with around 130 Dixons XL-sized stores.
The high street model, which involves high rents and makes displaying a full range of products difficult, has proved problematical for Dixons as it faces increased competition in the brown goods electricals market from the likes of supermarket operators Tesco and Asda, catalogue retailer Argos, and online retailers.
[img r]currys.jpg[/img]Comet, the rival electricals chain owned by Kesa, already trades mainly from larger, out-of-town locations. Dixons has also been moving its Currys chain, specialising in white goods, to superstore locations on retail parks.
