The operations and tech delivery teams at Currys work hard all year round to ensure our stores and supply chains are continuously improving for colleagues, customers and the planet. Last week, their achievements were recognised with several award wins.
On the supply chain side, our Head of Delivery, Danny Wood, and his team were named Game Changer of the Year by Retail Gazette for delivering our Damage Reduction Programme.
Over three years, they’ve helped cut damage costs by more than £9 million and prevented more than 25,000 failed deliveries. What's more, this impact is being delivered in a sustainable way by moving to reusable packaging to eliminate around 25,000 single-use cardboard boxes each year - the equivalent of ten football pitches.
They were joined in the winner’s circle by Senior Sustainability Operations Manager Chris Brown and his team, who scooped the Sustainability Game Changer of the Year award for driving a series of fantastic initiatives across the business.
At the heart of this is our Cash for Trash programme, which has helped contribute to us collecting nearly 2 million electrical items for recycling and re-use. This helps us give tech longer life and reduce landfill waste while giving our customers affordable access to high-quality tech. In the last year alone, we’ve supported 13,000 low-income households with access to refurbished technology they previously could not afford.
Hot on the heels of these wins, the Retail Tech Innovation Hub Innovation Awards saw even more success for our retail operations and tech delivery teams who’ve collaborated to deliver a series of projects that that have taken our store operations to the next level.
Our partnership with Vestcom and Solum to introduce Electronic Shelf Edge Labelling (ESEL) to all UK&I stores was named Digital Transformation Project of the Year in the UK.
ESEL has been transformational for several reasons. By replacing manual paper labelling, we're offering customers real-time pricing, clearer product information and easy-to-scan QR codes for more information. ESEL also frees up colleagues to do what they do best - helping customers enjoy brilliant new technology.
Another winner on the night was our partnership with VoCoVo to provide all store colleagues with headsets, which won Best Retailer/Technology Supplier Relationship.
These headsets are simple to use, robust, comfortable and have outstanding battery life. Most importantly, they allow colleagues to stay better connected, and therefore safer, on the shop floor. They also make the shopping experience smoother for customers, who can now request assistance by clicking a button throughout the store that notifies the shop floor team via their headsets.
Our joint entry with VoCoVo was even picked out by the judging panel as one of two stand-out entries across all 20 award categories!