About

About Currys

Currys is on a mission to help everyone enjoy amazing technology. With 24,000 colleagues and 715 stores, across 6 countries, people are at the heart of staying ahead. That’s why their supply chain and services teams in the UK launched the Pitch—a platform to turn frontline colleague ideas into real business impact.

Turning ideas into impact

Currys supply chain and services division is home to over 5,000 colleagues—delivering and installing millions of products each year, running the largest tech repair centre in Europe, and playing a vital role in the customer experience.

That same mindset inspired the Pitch – turn your ideas into the next big thing: a colleague-led platform designed to harness everyday innovation from the ground up.

Launched with Sideways 6, the Pitch went from idea to impact in just seven weeks—with 4,500+ colleagues invited, 380+ ideas submitted, and over 100 ideas are already in progress, with 31 delivered so far.

Before Sideways 6

Currys had long championed continuous improvement—but without a centralised platform, sharing and tracking ideas was patchy at best. Most suggestions lived in spreadsheets or inboxes, and many never made it past the first conversation.

“Some parts of the business had homemade spreadsheets, but it was very manual. It needed lots of intervention. From a colleague experience point of view, it had room for improvement.” — Phil Knowles, Head of Continuous Improvement & Skills Development, Currys

As Currys doubled down on its Right First Time strategy, the team realised they needed more than good intentions. They needed a solution that could scale across sites, empower colleagues to contribute confidently, and build a consistent, connected culture of improvement.

Real ideas. Real impact.

In just five months, 31 colleague ideas have been turned into action—ranging from smarter processes to sustainability wins and serious cost savings:

• Replacing safety shoes with reusable insoles and laces
• Cross-training improvements saving hundreds of hours
• In-house repairs for returned games consoles

“We’ve seen first-hand how small ideas can have a big impact. One change might save us a few minutes, another might save thousands of pounds—but they all add up, fast.”— Samantha Canham

So far, the team has verified a six-figure financial benefit, with another sizeable six-figure sum in the pipeline, and has repurposed more than 3,000 hours to higher-value work.