Dixons today unveiled plans to fast-track the expansion of its PC City chain in France.
The electricals retailer, which generates around a third of its sales outside the UK, believes there is scope for at least 100 superstores. It will also enter the market in Poland for the first time and bring PC City to Portugal.
The moves will take the number of countries where the group has a presence to 15, with an option on Russia and Ukraine after it recently secured the right to buy Eldorado, the biggest electronics seller in the region.
The developments overseas should enable Dixons to offset increasingly tough trading conditions in its home market.
Dixons said the “fantastic reaction” of French customers to seven existing PC City stores had encouraged it to accelerate the expansion of the format, which is based on the PC World chain in the UK.
PC City currently employs 300 people in France but that figure could rise to 3,500 when the expansion is complete.
The developments in Poland will see Dixons open two stores in Warsaw under the Electro World brand, which already trades in Hungary and the Czech Republic. It is also assessing suitable sites for the first PC City store in Portugal.
Rhys Williams of Seymour Pierce stockbrokers said the announcements failed to disguise the challenges facing the group.
He said: “Whilst this is a sensible strategy of slowly increasing its presence in new and emerging markets, it does not take away the fact that market conditions remain weak and that the company is under intense pressure on both costs and margins.”
As well as its Dixons, Currys, PC World and The Link chains in the UK, Dixons has operations in countries including Spain, Greece and Italy.
References: EGi News 27/04/05
