The painful reality of trading in the uber-competitive Nordics is something that the management of Currys has been too slow to grasp. It has cost the electricals retailer dear, with another double-digit dive in the shares taking the price to the lowest point since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
The company has been too slow to cut costs down to size to fit a more aggressive trading environment in the Nordics, a region that still accounts for 40 per cent of sales. The business sank to a loss of £11 million over the 12 months to the end of April, against a profit of £130 million the year before. That drove the overall pre-tax profit down more than a third, even after stripping
