{"id":205773,"date":"2026-06-04T08:31:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/?p=205773"},"modified":"2026-06-04T08:31:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:31:22","slug":"currys-names-shop-floor-veteran-as-new-boss-as-baldock-exits-for-boots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/06\/currys-names-shop-floor-veteran-as-new-boss-as-baldock-exits-for-boots\/","title":{"rendered":"Currys names shop-floor veteran as new boss as Baldock exits for Boots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Currys<\/a> has promoted company veteran Fredrik Tonnesen<\/a> to chief executive, replacing Alex Baldock as he prepares to take the top job at Boots.<\/p>\n

Tonnesen, who currently leads Currys\u2019 Nordics business, first joined the electricals retailer 20 years ago as a sales assistant.<\/p>\n

He went on to become managing director for Norway, before taking on the role of chief operating officer for the Nordics and later chief executive of the division in 2023.<\/p>\n

Currys said Tonnesen, whose division accounts for around 40 per cent of group revenue, had delivered \u201coutstanding financial and operational performance\u201d, more than tripling operating profits while improving colleague and customer satisfaction scores.<\/p>\n

Currys chair Ian Dyson said: \u201cFredrik has huge experience inside the business and has led an extremely impressive operating performance improvement over the last three years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe understands our customers, our colleagues and our culture from the inside, and brings the right combination of clarity, energy and leadership to take Currys forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baldock announced in March that he would step down after eight years at Currys to lead Boots ahead of a potential \u00a37bn London stock market flotation.<\/p>\n

He joined Currys in 2018 from Shop Direct, now The Very Group, following the difficult merger of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse, which later rebranded as Currys.<\/p>\n

During his tenure, Baldock sought to simplify the group, selling its Greek operations, cutting debt and pushing harder into online sales.<\/p>\n

Since his appointment, online sales have grown from less than 10 per cent of turnover to more than 40 per cent, while Currys has cut debt by \u00a3900m and returned to profitable growth.<\/p>\n

Berenberg described Tonnesen\u2019s promotion as a \u201cstrong internal appointment\u201d, adding that it was a \u201cnatural and positive development\u201d given his two decades at the business.<\/p>\n

Panmure Liberum analysts said the appointment signalled continuity for a strategy \u201cset out and delivered by Alex Baldock\u201d, while bringing Tonnesen\u2019s \u201cvast retail experience and perspective to the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n

Currys expects profit before tax for the year to come in at around \u00a3191m. The retailer is due to publish its full-year results on 2 July.<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette\u2018s free daily email newsletter<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Currys has promoted company veteran Fredrik Tonnesen to chief executive, replacing Alex Baldock as he prepares to take the top job at Boots. Tonnesen, who currently leads Currys\u2019 Nordics business, first joined the electricals retailer 20 years ago as a sales assistant. He went on to become managing director for Norway, before taking on the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":850,"featured_media":205775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2646,2620],"tags":[3939,2756,5373,59352],"class_list":["post-205773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appointments","category-news","tag-alex-baldock","tag-boots","tag-currys","tag-fredrik-tonnesen"],"comment_count":0,"featured_video":false,"extra_images":false,"featured_youtube_video_url":"","featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/355462d7-4808-4176-8bec-590012941b1e.png","thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/355462d7-4808-4176-8bec-590012941b1e-300x200.png","views":"600","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/850"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205776,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205773\/revisions\/205776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}