Currys at Christmas: Inside Europe’s largest repair centre during the festive season

Spanning 500,000 sq ft to make it Europe’s largest repair centre, Currys’ site in Newark, Nottinghamshire, was set up to give mobiles, laptops, TVs, washing machines and other tech a longer life.

Around 1,000 experts are on hand to try to fix whatever device comes their way, with options to repair and refurbish, or they can recycle the item and harvest parts for further use.

Newark is also home to the retailer’s main distribution centre, which has its busiest times over Black Friday and Christmas, while the repair centre has an entirely different peak.

“Summer and back-to-school are when repairs peak due to customers wanting tech fixes before starting a new term,” explains Currys chief operating officer Lindsay Haselhurst.

“We then see a second peak in January for repairs following Black Friday and Christmas.”

Walking around the vast site, it’s clear that December is still busy for staff. Those working on Currys Repair Live take around 600 video calls a week, 24 hours a day, from both Currys and non-Currys customers to support home repairs.

The main aim is to aid the public in fixing laptops and TVs but experts try to help with any tech-related issues. The team received 177 calls about dishwashers in its first week.

Haselhurst admits she wishes more customers would use it as several issues are solved with a quick fix, which saves them time, money and tech.

For those who don’t or can’t repair products at home, experts at Newark have been trained to fix items in a simpler, more cost-effective way for the business and consumers.

One demonstrated how a broken TV can be fixed by replacing an LED light strip rather than an entire screen, costing £30 instead of hundreds.

While the scale of the centre and knowledge are impressive, Haselhurst says it is “frustrating” that many people don’t realise what Currys is doing to repair products.

“Accreditation is hugely important and I don’t think we’ve landed that message clearly enough around Currys’ quality, accreditation, having no counterfeit parts, the 12-month warranty and the confidence that goes with refurbished,” she says.

She hails the retailer’s “cash for trash” initiative, where customers can bring in old, unwanted tech and receive a voucher for a minimum of £5, as a “massive success” but says more still needs to be done.

“Currys has a whole ecosystem of capabilities and we are shouting about it but the reality is there are so many shouty messages to consumers at this time of year.

“Customers will talk about their willingness to buy refurbished but there are issues to overcome in terms of confidence, awareness and price. It takes time to change some of those behaviours,” Haselhurst says.

Groundbreaking work

Currys checks and repairs around 1 million pieces of tech each year but for those that can’t be restored, customers receive a voucher.

Experts will then take the item apart, test the components and harvest the usable ones for future use.

There is a 3D printer at the centre used to recreate parts they may not have been able to purchase or fix. The newly developed parts cost pennies and can be inserted into a product for repair, meaning the customer won’t have to purchase a new product.

Throughout the visit, Haselhurst makes it clear that Currys champions repair not only for the planet and circular economy but to ensure it is “commercially viable” and boosts profits.

“This comes from a prerogative post-Covid to be more cost-effective,” she explains.

“A lot of ideas came from the entrepreneurial nature of our colleagues who came up with solutions that, quite honestly, I wouldn’t have thought possible.

“Developing diagnostic tools, Repair Live and 3D printing has been great from a customer, capability and cost perspective. It’s groundbreaking work where our experts are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.”

Experts are undergoing training to repair newer, tougher-to-fix devices such as coffee machines, VR headsets and gaming steering wheels. In a few weeks, they will try to fix irons, microwaves, e-scooters and drones.

Haselhurst says the cost of repairing these items would have been “too much two years ago” but now the business has the facilities to do so.

“For us, it’s about different consumer choices,” she adds.

“If you want to buy new, do so, but take your old device and trade it in to get some money for it. You then know it’s going to be refurbished, recycled, resold or donated to a charity that gives families access to technology they might otherwise not have.

“That’s what we want to get across. Combining the new with the old.”