BAYKO in CURRYS

This may be a surprise to you, it certainly came as a surprise to me! These days, everybody in the U.K. associates CURRYS with the sale of so-called white goods, electrical and electronic equipment for the home, but…

CURRYS was founded in 1884 by Henry Curry [born Leicester 1850], when he started to build bicycles full time at 40 Painter Street, Leicester, England. He opened his first shop in 1888, at 271 Belgrave Gate, Leicester. In 1890, he moved to larger premises at 296 Belgrave Gate, then in, 1900 to 285–287 Belgrave Gate.

By this time, their shops offered a wide variety of goods including bicycles, toys, radios and gramophones. CURRYS pulled out of cycle manufacturing, in 1932, when they closed their Leicester factory, however, they continued to retail bikes [still badged as CURRYS] until the 1960s.

Meanwhile, particularly under the directorship of family member Dennis Curry between 1967 and 1984, CURRYS underwent considerable expansion becoming a major high street supplier of televisions and white goods [refrigerators, washing machines and other domestic appliances]. By 1984 Currys Group PLC [CURRYS] was a chain of 570 shops, twice as many as the company which acquired it.

CURRYS was taken over by DIXONS [now DIXONS CARPHONE], owners of the DIXONS electrical products retail chain) in 1984, but maintained its separate brand identity.

All of which brings us up to date, courtesy of WIKIPEDIA. So far I've only come across one BAYKO entry in CURRYS, but I will try and chase up more if I can…

I think it's a reasonable assumption that the CURRYS shop manager had some degree of autonomy in his advertising programme, but with corporate support providing the logo, etc.