Carphone Warehouse 2016 Annual Report Download - page 16

Dixons Carphone plc Annual Report and Accounts 2015/16
Strategic Report
Strategy and business model
14
Dixons Carphone is Europe's leading specialist consumer
electrical and mobile phone and connectivity retailer and
services company, employing over 42,000 people in 11
countries. Focused on helping customers navigate the
connected world, Dixons Carphone offers a comprehensive
range of electronic and mobile products, connectivity and
expert after-sales services from the Geek Squad and Knowhow.
Dixons Carphone's primary brands include Carphone
Warehouse, Currys and PCWorld in the UK & Ireland, Elkjøp
and Elkjøp Phonehouse, Elgiganten and Elgiganten Phone
House, Gigantti and Lefdal in the Nordic countries, Kotsovolos
in Greece, Dixons Travel in a number of UK & Ireland airports
and Phone House in Spain. Our key service brands include
Knowhow in the UK, Ireland and the Nordics, and Geek Squad
in the UK, Ireland and Spain.
Business-to-business (‘B2B’) services are provided through
Connected World Services (‘CWS’), PC World Business, Elkjøp
Business and Carphone Warehouse Business. Connected
World Services aims to leverage the Group's existing expertise,
operating processes and technology to provide a range of
services to other businesses.
During the year we have bolstered our Nordic and UK
consumer services offerings with the acquisitions of InfoCare
and Simplifydigital and we continue to review our business
portfolio, focusing on territories in which we are the market
leader and growing market share.
This enables us to drive the Group forward from a position
of strength with a focus on three strategic priorities. By
focusing on these we can deliver not only a better business
for our customers and colleagues, but also better returns for
our shareholders.
The strategic priorities are:
1. Continue to enhance and drive successful
and sustainable retail business models in a
multi-channel world;
2. Leverage our scale, our knowhow, and our unique
infrastructure to drive growth in new product areas
including growth in services; and
3. Continue to develop the CWS model and establish
it as a material contributor to earnings.
Looking at each of these in turn:
1. Continue to enhance and drive
successful and sustainable
retail business models in a
multi-channel world
Our customers tell us that when buying consumer electronics
they want advice to ensure they are making the right choices,
particularly as these are often major purchases that customers
will own for several years. The growth of the internet has
empowered customers, providing instant access to information
including product knowledge and price transparency.
In mobile, we are uniquely positioned in the UK & Ireland and
the Nordics to provide independent advice and meet customer
requirements for impartiality, comparability and flexibility,
both online and in-store with the Pin Point tool in the UK. In
consumer electronics, single channel internet operators have
a different model whose principal advantage is structurally
lower costs and which have historically been able to offer
competitive prices versus store-based operators. By focusing
on the advantages that we, as a multi-channel specialist,
can offer customers and suppliers we can eliminate the cost
advantage that pure-play internet operators have historically
enjoyed. As a result we are able to offer customers very
competitive prices against our competitor set and still be
more profitable.
There are four distinct activities that we believe are the key
strengths of our multi-channel, service-based model and which
will support our competitive advantage going forward:
1. Work closely with suppliers to harness benefits available
to our business model: Suppliers want to ensure that
customers not only choose their brands, but also
experience the benefits of the latest products. As a
multi-channel operator we work with our suppliers to
ensure we can explain the benefits of these products and
demonstrate them to customers in our stores and our
suppliers support us in this work in a variety of ways.
2. Focus on complete solutions for customers: The Pin Point
tool enables the personalisation of the mobile customer
experience. Using tablets in store, we ask customers a
few simple questions to help them find the right deal.
The tool will identify the preferred network via its coverage
checker, handset and operating system, check bundle
options including data requirements and ensure this is
future-proofed. In consumer electronics, we do more than
simply sell the product; we will also get it working and keep
it working, as well as delivering it, and providing peace of
mind through product support and after-sales services.
The conversations our colleagues have in-store with
customers give us an opportunity to explain the benefits
of these solutions and sell more of them than our
single-channel competition.
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