Currys is promising to deliver electrical items to customers’ homes within 30 minutes as part of a new tie-up between with Uber.
Yesterday Currys, the electricals retailer, said that it would trial a rapid delivery service with Uber, the taxi and food delivery app, in London with a view to rolling out the scheme across the UK.
The service will allow customers to order items via the Currys website which will then be delivered by Uber drivers. The fee for delivery will be fixed at £5 and will include items up to 7kg in weight, which encompasses laptop computers. Currys has earmarked 15 of its branches in London to provide the service.
Currys announced the link with Uber as it revealed a £75 million share buyback on the back of robust trading. Currys was previously known as Dixons Carphone. It announced earlier this year that it was rebranding its Dixons, Carphone Warehouse and Currys PC World shops under the Currys brand. It has 314 shops in the UK and Ireland where it employs 21,000 people. In Europe it has 35,000 staff, and 829 shops in seven countries.
The company said in its trading update that sales in the UK and Ireland were down 3 per cent on a like-for-like basis compared with the same period last year in the six months to the end of October. However, they were up by 11 per cent on the same period two years ago. Group sales fell by 1 per cent year-on-year and were up 15 per cent compared to two years ago.
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Currys said that it would buy back shares worth £75 million over the next 12 months. Shares in Currys rose by almost 9 per cent, to 133¼p, after the announcement. They have now risen by more than 31 per cent in a year.
Mark Allsop, the chief operating officer, said that it had agree the partnership with Uber because customers “are demanding greater convenience and speedier delivery to get their hands on tech”. Eve Henrikson, Uber’s regional general manager for Europe, said: “By using Uber’s technology and the network of couriers who use our app, orders made through the Currys website can be delivered in as little as 30 minutes, and we are looking forward to expanding the partnership further.”
