Following today’s release of Curry’s figures for the 17 weeks ending 29 August 2026; Oliver Maddison, retail analyst at GlobalData, a leading intelligence and productivity platform, offers his view: “Currys turned out a respectable set of results for the first 17 weeks of FY2026/27, reporting 7% group like-for-like (l-f-l) sales growth, spurred on by successive heatwaves in the UK and soft comparatives in the Nordics. The group reported stable gross margins across both geographies as well as strong growth in higher-margin services such as iD Mobile and flexpay, implying falling margins on the electricals themselves as the memory shortage continues to hit wholesale prices. Nevertheless, particularly through continued services growth, the electricals specialist anticipates growth in profit before tax of around 4% for the full year, in line with slightly elevated analyst consensus.
“While group l-f-l sales growth was led by the Nordic wing (+9%), the UK & Ireland also produced a solid 6%, with growth across both retail channels, but still driven by recurring services and B2B. The urgency of cooling appliance purchases during the heatwaves, alongside consumers bringing forward television spend for the World Cup gave a boost to Currys’ previously lackadaisical B2C electricals sales that was large enough to arrest the decline in its instore sales. The absence of these pressures to spend moving forward may well rear its head in the group’s interim results.
“While Currys is explicitly ‘targeting continued growth in higher margin, recurring Services revenue’, particularly through its low-cost mobile network, iD Mobile, it must be wary of the increasing precarity of this position. The recent launch of AO Mobile and Monzo Mobile, as well as the impending launch of Lidl’s mobile network will challenge iD’s position in the low-cost mobile network space, potentially throttling one of Currys’ key growth engines. This prospect, combined with declining margins on core B2C sales of electricals has the potential to throw a spanner in the works for Currys’ growth plans.
