Colleagues from our Southport Store have been on somewhat of an adventure over the past year. With a major overhaul and renovation of their 17,631 sq ft superstore in the pipeline, the team were tasked with making a vacant lot their temporary home for 15 months.
Guided by General Manager, Vicki Nelson, the team moved out to a unit nearby where their pop-up shop soon felt anything but temporary. Fundamental to its success, was our Construction and Implementation teams drawing on their unique Asset Reclaim Centre to make the temporary store feel like home.
Whilst many businesses send most of their old fixtures and fittings to landfill – Currys doesn’t. Anything that gets sent to ‘The ARC’ in Bolton gets a second shot at being reused on future projects like this.
“I think it’s fantastic how this facility reduces the impact on the environment, and of course, helps with cost reduction. We’re proud of how The ARC has grown since it moved into our Bolton External Regional Distribution Centre three years ago. It’s really one of our crown jewels and pretty unique across Retail generally. The team did a great job at using pre-loved fixtures & fittings to showcase the Southport team’s amazing tech offering!” Jason Carter, Senior Manager for Property Delivery and Implementation.
“The team loved trading in the temporary store. It was hard to believe the displays were second hand: everything looked brand new! We settled in so well that the team were initially unsure about moving back but when they saw how amazing the store looked inside & out, they couldn't wait to move back home”, explains Vicki.
Amidst the challenges of the move, the team stayed focused and continued to build on their sterling performance. In fact, they smashed their service & sales targets out of the park!
Jason agrees: “They were the real stars of the show here. The Construction & Implementation teams built some strong foundations for them, which were well supported by many teams across our business, but the colleagues served, sold to, and supported customers impressively throughout, despite the disruption.”
Back home, the store undertook a huge makeover – to improve the customer shopping experience, and behind the scenes for our team too. We sell amazing tech, so we need to have an amazing space to match it! The team reimagined the order and collect area to help reduce waiting times for customers, as well as improving the storeroom layout. All in all, the well-thought-out spaces are designed to improve customer satisfaction and importantly, enable our colleagues to spend more critical time with their customers.
The breakout area had a makeover too, providing a better space for colleagues to recharge and get ready to get back out in the store to help our customers find their perfect tech.
The store reopened at the end of February, with balloons and bunting galore, ahead of a busy launch weekend across which the team exceeded sales expectations!
“The reopening weekend was great, and the entire team really enjoyed the event! I am immensely proud of how brilliantly they have coped with the upheaval of 2 moves in 15 months. They all worked incredibly hard, overcame any issues encountered and showed amazing resilience. On top of that they performed at the top of their game. We achieved fantastic results whilst in the temporary store which is so impressive”, explains Vicki.
This journey is one of huge colleague resilience and adaptability – with the teams managing to maintain a high performance, despite the disruption. Now back home, colleagues are settling into the new space and have received great feedback from customers.
“Wow! What an adventure this team have been on. It’s far from ideal that we had to relocate temporarily, but it didn’t even phase our fantastic Southport team – they pushed through, and the customer service and store performance speak for themselves. Congratulations to everyone involved here – we’re delighted to be back home, and it just shows how amazing our teams are at being flexible, accommodating and simply fabulous!”
Ian Charnley Head of Stores
