Currys

Early years

Henry Curry started to make bicycles in Painter Street, Leicester in 1884, after leaving his previous employer N. Corah & Sons. Currys went public in 1927 when his four sons merged The Louth Bicycle Company, and the loose confederation of shops which the sons had run since their father's retirement in 1909, with the Nottingham-based Campion Cycle Company.

By the 1940s, the shops sold a wide variety of goods including bicycles, toys, radios and gramophones. Meanwhile, particularly under the directorship between 1967 and 1984 of Dennis Curry, grandson of Henry Curry, the company underwent considerable expansion to become a major high street supplier of televisions and white goods (refrigerators, washing machines and other domestic appliances).

Takeover by Dixons

In 1984, Currys was taken over by Dixons (another electrical products retail chain) but maintained its separate brand identity. In April 2006, Dixons Stores Group announced that its Dixons shops, except in Ireland and in duty-free areas in airports, would be rebranded as Currys.digital (later changed to Currys Digital). In Ireland, the Dixons shops were rebranded as Currys in August 2008.

Before the Dixons rebranding, the chain had only a few small town centre shops compared with its much greater number of large out-of-town megastores. On 17 January 2007, group chief executive John Clare announced that when the leases on the remaining Currys High Street shops (not the rebranded Currys.digital shops) expired, it would be unlikely that they would be renewed: thus the shops would be closed at the earliest opportunity.

Currys PC World

Dixons Retail began a trial combining Currys and PC World shops in 2008. During the Dixons Carphone Christmas 2015–2016 results update to shareholders, Sebastian James, group chief executive, said that over the following financial year the three-in-one shop format (shops featuring Currys, PC World and Carphone Warehouse branding under one roof) would be rolled out across the company's entire portfolio in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.

Revival of Currys as sole brand

Following reorganisations in 2020 and 2021, Dixons Carphone announced that the Currys PC World stores would be rebranded as Currys in October 2021. The parent company, Dixons Carphone plc, was renamed Currys plc in the same year.

The present-day Currys produces electronics under its own brands, Logik and Sandstrom, and formerly also Advent. These originated under Dixons ownership.