Euronics may be on the brink of losing their top position as Estonia’s main supplier to the domestic electronics market. Euronics, a well known chain of electronic stores belonging to Antista AS, stocks the usual modern family essentials such as; home electronics, home appliances, audio equipment, video equipment. VCRs, DVD-players, CD players, home theatre systems, camcorders, televisions, stereos, radios, tape recorders, voice recorders, digital cameras. Rumour has it that Dixons, the well known household electronics company, boasting some 642 shops across the UK and Ireland plus another 285 shops in Scandinavia are setting their sites on Estonia and the Baltic region. Dixons Retail owns Elkjøp, the largest electrical retailer in the Nordic countries owning some 264 stores. The CEO of Elkjøp Nordic, Ronny Blomseth is quoted as saying regarding Dixons “We have not yet made any decision about expanding into the Baltic countries. We are now looking at locations in different parts of Europe, but no decisions have yet been made,”
Morgan Stanley, in a recent report, stated that Dixons could no longer afford its large UK stores where huge rental prices conflicted with sustainable profit growth. In order to survive Morgan Stanley considered that Dixons would be better off closing their UK operations to concentrate more heavily on its Scandinavian businesses. It is argued that Estonian’s may not immediately have the buying power to merit the move for Dixons to the Baltics, but the taste and desire for home electronics is patently there otherwise there would not be so many electronics stores already peppering Estonian shopping districts.
