in 2000
Early years Dixons was founded as a photographic studio by
Charles Kalms and Michael Mindel in High Street in
Southend under the name of Dixons Studios Limited, a company registered in October 1937 with a share capital of £100. The name Dixons, selected randomly from the
telephone directory, was sufficiently short to fit above the small shop front. Dixons was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1962, changing its name at that time to Dixons Photographic Limited. It bought out competitors Ascotts in 1962, and Bennetts in 1964. In 1972, Dixons bought another competitor,
Wallace Heaton, and in 1974, it opened its
Stevenage distribution centre. In February 1993, Dixons bought Vision Technology Group (VTG), operating under the
PC World brand at
Croydon,
Lakeside Shopping Centre,
Brentford and
Staples Corner. Later that year, the company sold VTG's mail order division, Dixons US Holdings Inc and Supasnaps.
2000s In October 2002, Dixons bought UniEuro, an Italian-based electrical retailer, and Genesis Communications, a mobile phone service provider. The company opened its first Electro World store in
Hungary in February 2002. In October 2005,
Dixons Group plc changed its name to
DSG International plc. Further potential expansion came in April 2005, when DSGi bought an interest in Eldorado Group, the largest electrical retailer in Russia and
Ukraine, with an option to buy the rest by 2011 for US$1.9 billion (about £1 billion GBP). This option was not pursued, DSGi withdrawing their interest in April 2007. In May 2006, DSGi was awarded the
Queen's Award for Enterprise. In January 2008, DSGi announced that it would stop selling analogue televisions and only sell integrated digital televisions, in an effort to get consumers ready for the
digital switchover. In May 2008, DSGi announced that it would close 77 of its 177 Currys.digital shops in the United Kingdom, as their building leases expired over the following five years.
2010s In May 2010, the company secured almost exclusive rights to sell the
Apple iPad. In June 2010, DSGi changed its name to
Dixons Retail plc.
Merger with Carphone Warehouse In May 2014, Dixons announced a merger, that soon came to pass, with
Carphone Warehouse; the combined company would have market capitalisation of around £3.8 billion. Dixons thus became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dixons Carphone Holdings Limited, and was renamed to Dixons Retail Group plc.
Sebastian James, who had been Dixons CEO since 2012, was appointed as CEO of Dixons Carphone. ==Operations==