Currys boss blames Labour’s ‘tax on jobs’ because it declares plans to rent extra staff in India

Currys’s boss has warned that price hikes, hiring more workers in India and automation are ‘inevitable’ after the Chancellor’s ‘tax on jobs’ in the Budget.

Alex Baldock said the electricals retailer will not hire as many staff in the UK after Rachel Reeves hit business with a £25billion hike in National Insurance (NI).

The raid will cost Currys an extra £30million a year at a time when it is also dealing with an inflation-busting hike in the minimum wage and higher business rates.

These increased costs mean Currys is looking to hire more workers in India, where it already employs 3.6 per cent of its workforce. 

Baldock said: ‘We’ve already got the best part of 1,000 colleagues in India – all the usual central and IT functions that you would expect – and they do a cracking job. 

‘You can expect, as UK-people costs inflate, to see more of that, that’s just inevitable.’

Job cuts: Currys’s boss Alex Baldock said the electricals retailer will not hire as many staff in the UK after Rachel Reeves hit business with a £25bn hike in National Insurance 

He said the NI increase ‘is a tax on jobs that doesn’t benefit colleagues at all’.

The employer NI rate was increased from 13.8 per cent to 15 per cent, and the threshold for paying it has been cut from £9,100 to £5,000. Currys will also increase the use of automation on the shop floor.

Baldock warned price rises are ‘inevitable’, although insisted Currys will ‘do our best to keep these to a minimum’. 

Branding the Budget ‘unhelpful’, Baldock said: ‘We want to invest more, hire more and help the economy grow faster. 

‘What we’re asking for is the environment to allow us to do that.’ He added: ‘The picture is less rosy than it was in the summer, but a bit better than it was a year ago.

‘In the summer, inflation was falling, interest rates were expected to come down, consumer confidence and spending was rising, and that has stalled.’ 

Despite this, the firm impressed shareholders as it reported bumper Christmas trading.

Strong demand for laptops, mobile phones and games helped UK sales rise 2 per cent in the 10 weeks to January 4. 

And it now expects profits of between £145million and £155million for the year to April 2025, an increase of up to 31 per cent on the year before. Shares surged 10.3 per cent, or 8.8p, to 90.8p.

Investors were also cheered by news the group will declare a dividend of around 1.3p a share when it posts annual results in July. This is its first payout since 2022.

Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: ‘Currys has joined the throng of retailers who enjoyed a strong peak festive trading period, and confirmation of a return to dividend payments comes as an additional bonus.

‘On balance, Currys has an optimistic outlook. The market consensus of the shares as a buy will remain intact as investors consider that this growth story has further to run,’ he added.