Why more competition on the High Street is healthy for the industry

It seems like only yesterday PCR was writing pieces around the merger of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse.

But it’s been one year since the pair came together to form Dixons Carphone – on August 7th 2014 to be precise. So what effect has this had on the market?

Well, at the time, I wrote that without having a couple of major competitors on the High Street alongside it, the group would probably go on to monopolise UK bricks and mortar tech retail. And looking at its financial results over the past 12 months, it would seem that’s becoming the case. While I welcome the success of Dixons Carphone, I feel the lack of competition is detrimental to our industry.

Ebuyer and Overclockers have huffed and puffed about opening stores – but not made a move yet. In the meantime, Dixons has been bringing hundreds of Carphone Warehouse stores to its Currys/PC World shops. Now it’s opening US stores with Sprint from August.

CEO Sebastian James said: “I think we’re building something that has the entrepreneurial flair of Carphone Warehouse coupled with the commercial oomph of the Dixons Retail group.” 

However, James did admit it still has a long way to go on service. 

If this is something it can really get right, then other PC retailers should have another look at their core business model – because Dixons is not going away. 

On the contrary, I’m sure it will only get bigger, and competing with it in the next five years is going to be harder than ever.