Fans in short supply as next UK heatwave approaches, says Currys

The boss of Currys has said supplies of air conditioning and fans are “tight” ahead of another UK heatwave, expected next week, after a boom in sales sent retailers scrambling to source new stock.

Alex Baldock, chief executive of the electrical goods retailer, said cooling kit had been “flying off the shelves” during June’s record heatin England. Sales of fans were up nearly 3,000% over the most recent heatwave weekend compared with a week earlier, while air conditioning sales increased 330%.

He said Currys, which has 691 stores in the UK and Nordic region, was “working incredibly hard to make sure we have got a healthy level of stock” but supplies were “pretty tight”.

“We are benefiting from being number one in the market and if anyone is going to have it we are going to have it,” he added.

Baldock made the comments as he announced that Currys’ sales rose 6% to £9.2bn in the year to 2 May and pre-tax profits increased 23% to £153m.

Sales in established UK stores were up 3%, despite a decline in the wider market, as the company moved into new markets such as coffee machines and AI-driven laptops, expanded services such as repair and installation and increased sales to small businesses.

Baldock said trading since May had continued to be strong, partly helped by the football World Cup, which has increased sales of large TVs, barbecues, beer pumps and hot tubs. Sales of 90in TVs have more than doubled.

“We are certainly cheering on England and Norway,” he said. “It’s good for sales.”

Baldock said it was “inevitable” there would be inflation, caused in part by a global shortage of silicon chips, which was “definitely a real thing”, and by demand from AI datacentres, but said Currys had secured its supply of computers and mobile phones until at least September.

He said the level of inflation that would filter through to shelves was not clear and Currys was “working hard to make the most of our influence as the number one [retailer] to protect the consumer from price rises”.

Baldock said he was delighted to hear Andy Burnham, the UK’s putative next prime minister, “talking about the high street and retail at the centre of economic and social life in the country”.

The Currys boss urged the government to unwind increases to employers’ national insurance contributions brought in last year, and to take care on potential new restrictions on employment contracts under the Employment Rights Act.

He said Burnham needed to make it “less risky, less difficult and less expensive” to hire people, saying the cost of employing a part-time worker at Currys increased 30% after the changes to national insurance and the minimum wage announced in the October 2024 budget.

Baldock said retailers also needed a “level playing field” with online sellers on business rates and also through a more rapid change to tax breaks on low-value imported items, which have benefited cut-price overseas sellers such as Shein and Temu. Last month, the Treasury announced it was bringing forward the removal of the de minimis customs duty relief by six months, to October 2028.

The results were Baldock’s last annual figures before leaving Currys to become the boss of Boots, the health and beauty retailer, in the autumn.