Owners DSG International has announced that it is to shut 77 of its 177 Currys.digital store outlets when their leases expire over the next five years.

About 20 staff, a mixture of full and part-time employees, work at Peterborough's Currys.digital store, in the Queensgate shopping centre.

DSG International is facing a tough challenge to combat the deteriorating economic climate.

Which of the stores are set to close has yet to be revealed, and a spokeswoman for DSG International today said they won't be until "much later down the line".

The spokeswoman added: "A number of the stores' leases will expire in the next three to five years. We are not in a position to say which ones will be affected yet, this will be much later down the line."

The closures are part of a major shake-up of DSG International, which it hopes will cut costs by £50m in 2008/09.

DSG's new chief executive John Browett warned that the deteriorating economic backdrop made it difficult to forecast business performance.

The transformation of the DSG group will include store refits at Currys, PC World and Currys.digital plus cost savings at its head office.

Peterborough has a further Currys store and PC World store in the Brotherhood Retail Park, off Bourges Boulevard.

There are also two Currys outlets in Stamford and one in March.

It has not yet been revealed how the transformation will impact these stores.

It is expected the internet is to take 30 per cent of the UK electricals market over the next three or four years, compared with the 10 per cent it currently accounts for. The announcement came just days after DSG reported a one percent rise in like-for-like sales for the year to May 3.

The news made DSG's shares tumbled by almost 12 per cent, before rebounding slightly to trade 7.5 pence, or 11 per cent, lower at 61.75p. DSG already issued two profit warnings this year.

A spokesman for Queensgate said the centre had not been made aware of any potential store closure.

Store chain has been re-branded
DSG International decided to rebrand all electrical products stores as Currys.digital and use the Dixons brand for its internet retailing operations two years ago.
It was known as Dixons until April 5, 2006, when DSG announced it was moving away from the Dixons brand, except in Ireland and UK airports.
As well as major brands Currys.digital stores stock the DSG International own brand Advent computers.

External links:
DSG International.