Dick Smith Electronics has announced that it’s expanding its recently-purchased-from-Woolworths brand base by taking over the Electronics sales in 30 David Jones department stores.
It’s an interesting move — by the wording of the press release a “Retail Brand Management Agreement” that’ll see the electronics departments in those David Jones stores labelled as “David Jones Electronics Powered by Dick Smith” from 1 October, 2013.
It’ll also see the first mobile phone sales opportunity inside David Jones stores, something I didn’t realise wasn’t already happening. Then again, I can’t say I’ve purchased much in the way of electronics from David Jones in any case. It’s fundamentally just a bit of re-branding for the most part, as Dick Smith Electronics won’t be hiring staff for the stores; instead they’ll retrain the existing David Jones store staff.
No doubt somebody will drag Dick Smith himself into the story somehow; if you weren’t aware he’s had nothing to do with the Dick Smith Electronics for more than thirty years now.