Carphone Warehouse

For Carphone Warehouse in Ireland, see Dixons Carphone § United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Carphone Warehouse Ltd

File:Carphone Warehouse logo.svg
Founded	1989 (1989)
Founder	Charles Dunstone and Julian Brownlie
Defunct	2020 (physical stores) 2021 (in-store concessions)
Fate	Operates exclusively online
Headquarters	London, England, UK
Revenue	£10.7 million (2013)
Operating income	£57.1 million (2013)
Net income	£4.2 million (2013)
Number of employees	more than 11,500
Parent	Currys plc
Website	{{URL|example.com|optional display text}}

Carphone Warehouse is a mobile phone retailer headquartered in London, United Kingdom. In August 2014, the company became part of Currys plc (formerly known as "Dixons Carphone"), following the merger between its previous parent, Carphone Warehouse Group, and Dixons Retail. Before this consolidation, Carphone Warehouse Group was publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange and included in the FTSE 250 Index. After shutting down all standalone UK outlets in April 2020, remaining Carphone Warehouse locations in the UK operated solely as concessions within Currys PC World stores. The entire Carphone Warehouse operation in Ireland—including all independent and co-located branches as well as the website—ceased operations abruptly in April 2021. In the United Kingdom, Currys maintained the Carphone Warehouse brand presence online and inside Currys stores until 2021.

Founding period

The business was established in 1989 by Sir Charles Dunstone and Julian Brownlie, who invested £6,000 from their personal savings to launch the company. Shortly after, Guy Johnson from NEC UK joined as a partner and later assumed responsibility for Logistics and Distribution. In 1990, Dunstone invited his schoolmate David Ross, a qualified chartered accountant, who took on the role of Chief Operating Officer that same year.

1999 to 2009

In January 1999, the company acquired Tandy's UK operations for £9 million. The firm went public through an IPO in July 2000. By July 2001, Johnson divested most of his shares and retired from the company. In November 2002, Carphone Warehouse expanded by acquiring Opal Telecom.

Ross began reducing his operational responsibilities as COO in 2003. He was appointed deputy chairman in July 2005. On 10 October 2006, the company revealed plans to acquire AOL UK's Internet access division for £370 million. Additionally, that same month marked the announcement of Geek Squad's entry into the UK market through a joint venture equally owned by Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy.

In May 2008, Best Buy purchased a half stake in Carphone Warehouse’s retail segment for £1.1 billion, forming the CPW Europe joint venture. Furthermore, Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse launched joint retail outlets within the United States.

By December 2008, Ross, who had transitioned to a non-executive director role, resigned from the board.

2010 to 2021

In 2010, the broadband and home telephone division was separated to form TalkTalk.

By May 2014, Carphone Warehouse Group joined forces with Dixons Retail to establish Dixons Carphone. This merger was finalized on 7 August 2014. Subsequently, in May 2015, the Dixons Group team relocated to 1 Portal Way in West London, which was originally the Carphone Warehouse headquarters.

May 2015 also marked the launch of iD Mobile by Carphone Warehouse, a mobile virtual network operator operating on the Three network.

In April 2020, Carphone Warehouse ceased offering products and services from the O2 network after both parties failed to renew their contractual agreement.

File:Carphone Warehouse Group.png

Logo of Carphone Warehouse Group used until the 2014 merger with Dixons Retail

Closure of stand-alone UK stores

In March 2020, it was announced that all 531 stand-alone stores across the UK would close the following month. However, sales would persist within co-located "shop-in-shop" formats inside Currys PC World outlets as well as online. This decision was attributed to shifts in the mobile market landscape.

Closure in Ireland

On 21 April 2021, Carphone Warehouse declared the immediate shutdown of its entire Irish operations, including all 69 standalone outlets, 12 in-store locations, and the carphonewarehouse.ie website, resulting in 486 job losses. The company explained this move aligned with the prior UK store closures and was influenced by evolving mobile market conditions and accelerated changes in consumer behavior due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this exit, Dixons Carphone confirmed it would maintain phone and accessory sales in Ireland via Currys PC World stores and the Currys online platform.

Demergers and Divestments

On 8 May 2009, Carphone Warehouse finalized a cash acquisition of £236 million for the UK operations of Tiscali, an Italian telecommunications company. Subsequently, Tiscali UK was integrated into TalkTalk.

By March 2010, TalkTalk and Carphone Warehouse underwent a separation, with Dido Harding appointed as CEO of TalkTalk, while Roger Taylor took on the role of CEO for the newly independent Carphone Warehouse. Sir Charles Dunstone continued to serve as Chairman for both entities. On 30 April 2013, Carphone Warehouse secured full ownership of Best Buy Europe by purchasing Best Buy's remaining 50% stake for £500 million.

Carphone Warehouse held a 46% interest in Virgin Mobile France through a joint venture with Virgin Group. In June 2014, both companies agreed to divest Virgin Mobile France to Numericable for €325 million. This transaction received approval from the French regulatory authority, ARCEP, in November of the same year.

Data protection concerns

In April 2005, customers who purchased mobile phones from Carphone Warehouse stores reported that their landline services had been switched without their authorization.

On 15 August 2006, the Information Commissioner's Office issued Preliminary Enforcement Notices to Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk for violations of PECR (The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations). These notices addressed complaints about unsolicited marketing calls made to individuals registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) or those who had explicitly requested no further contact.

During an interview with The Times on 28 October 2006, Richard Thomas, the UK's Information Commissioner, remarked:

We are pursuing enforcement actions against certain telecom providers, including Talk Talk and Carphone Warehouse. This follows numerous complaints regarding marketing calls placed to people listed on the telephone preference service. We conduct these prosecutions with assistance from private investigators and have a significant case forthcoming.

On 5 August 2015, cyber attackers accessed personal data belonging to approximately 2.4 million users of websites managed by Carphone Warehouse, such as OneStopPhoneShop.com, e2save.com, Mobiles.co.uk, and TalkTalk Group.

In January 2018, the ICO imposed a £400,000 penalty on Carphone Warehouse due to "multiple inadequacies" in their security measures. These shortcomings included reliance on outdated software and failure to perform standard security assessments. As a result, unauthorized parties obtained sensitive customer details, including names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, marital statuses, and in over 18,000 instances, historical payment card information.

The X Factor

On 19 June 2007, Carphone Warehouse secured the official sponsorship rights for the fourth season of The X Factor, committing to a three-year partnership. Additionally, Carphone Warehouse extended its sponsorship to the show's companion program, The Xtra Factor. Following the separation of Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk, the latter assumed exclusive sponsorship responsibilities for The X Factor.

Big Brother

Between 2004 and 2007, the company acted as the primary sponsor for the British edition of Big Brother. In 2006, their sponsorship expanded to include Celebrity Big Brother along with associated programming broadcast on Channel 4.

On 17 January 2007, amidst allegations of racism within Celebrity Big Brother, Charles Dunstone remarked: "We are in discussions with Channel 4. Our sponsorship arrangement is under continuous evaluation. It is clear that we oppose racism. Most recognize that having a brand linked to a program does not imply endorsement of its content."

Subsequently, on 18 January 2007, Carphone Warehouse announced a suspension of its sponsorship due to Channel 4's insufficient response to the reported racist incidents. Later, on 8 March 2007, the company officially terminated its sponsorship agreement with the show.

Appy Awards

In April 2011, Carphone Warehouse took on the role of sponsor for the Appy Awards, which were promoted as "the United Kingdom’s inaugural major awards event celebrating innovation and progress in app technology."

Employees at Carphone Warehouse nominated approximately 1,000 applications, from which a judging panel shortlisted 50 finalists. This shortlist was revealed by Hammond in February 2011. The public participated in an online voting process that attracted around 30,000 votes to determine the winners. Most shortlisted apps were available as free downloads; however, some required either a one-time purchase or ongoing payment.

The Finland-based developer Rovio Mobile's 2009 release Angry Birds, which had recently surpassed the milestone of 100 million downloads, earned the Best App of the Year award along with Best Game App and was also nominated for Best Time Waster App. Lima Sky's Doodle Jump, which achieved over 10 million downloads by March 2011, received nominations in both Best Game App and Best Time Waster App categories but did not secure a win in either.

Appy Award winners and nominees

Category	Winner	Shortlisted nominees	Ref(s)
Template:Sort	Angry Birds	Sonic Flight Control FIFA 11 Doodle Jump
Template:Sort	Amazon	LoveFilm Tesco Groceries Jamie Oliver's 20 minute meals BBM
Template:Sort	Skype	Tastecard Money Supermarket vouchercloud ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner
Template:Sort	Spotify	Virtuoso Piano My Music Anywhere Last FM Shazam
Template:Sort	Adobe Photoshop	Instagram Hipstamatic iMovie FatBooth
Template:Sort	Sky Sports News	Endomondo Sports Tracker Nike+ GPS Adidas MiCoach Football Manager Handheld 2011
Template:Sort	Google Maps	ShopSavvy Barcode Scanner Sky+ Dragon Dictation Tube Exits
Template:Sort	Facebook	Doodle Jump YouTube Football Manager Handheld 2011 Angry Birds
Template:Sort	TripAdvisor	City Guides Time Out Google Translate Flight Tracker Tube Deluxe
Template:Sort	Angry Birds

Charitable involvement

In October 2001, Carphone Warehouse formed a corporate alliance with Get Connected UK, a confidential helpline dedicated to supporting young people. This collaboration remains active today under the name "The Mix". Carphone Warehouse provides Get Connected with essential office infrastructure and helpline technology, playing a key role in making the service accessible without charge from all landline and mobile phones. This partnership earned recognition through the Charity Times Corporate Partnership Award in 2003 and later received the Third Sector Excellence Award for Corporate Partnership in 2006.

See also

• Local loop unbundling