CeX (company)

Cex Ltd.
Private
Industry Retail
Founded Tottenham Court Road, London,
United Kingdom (1992)
Founders Robert Dudani
Paul Farrington
Hugh Man
Charlie Brooker
Oli Smith
Oliver Ball[1]
Headquarters Watford, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Key people
 David Mullins
(Chairman)
David Butler
(Managing Director)
Products Electronics, Music, Mobile Phones, DVDs and Games
Website www.webuy.com

Cex Ltd. ("Complete Entertainment eXchange") is a second hand goods chain based in the United Kingdom specialising in technology, computing, video games and technology repair. It also sells new items. It was established in 1992 in London,[2] and has since grown to have more than 350 stores in the UK and over 100 abroad.

History

A Cex store in Brighton
Cex, King Street, Hammersmith, London

CeX was founded by Paul Farrington[3] and Robert Dudani[4] and the first store opened on London's Whitfield Street, close to Tottenham Court Road in 1992.[5] In recent years, the "Cex" name has moved away from "Computer eXchange" into an acronym for "Complete Entertainment eXchange",[5] and company letterheads state "CeX LTD is trading as CeX Entertainment Exchange". The pronunciation of the chain's acronym name was confirmed in British TV commercials aired in March 2017 which confirmed it was the same as sex. The company now has more than 500 stores worldwide including over 350 stores in the United Kingdom,[6], 60 in Spain, 38 in Ireland, 23 in Australia, 19 in India, 14 in the Netherlands, 8 in Poland, 9 in Portugal, 23 in Mexico and 4 in Italy.

Dudani appeared on the British Channel 4 TV show Secret Millionaire.[7][8][9] This was after the business was affected by the 2011 England riots.[10]

Cex trading

Cex is a privately owned company. In 2005 Cex began issuing licences for franchising.[11]

As a second hand retailer, Cex trades with customers offering either cash or a voucher for redemption in any Cex store. A customer will typically receive around 50% cash or 66% exchange of Cex's selling price for the item, depending on condition. Some premium and new release items Cex will offer close or sometimes higher than the as new retail value of the product. Cex offer a 24-month warranty subject to terms on all of the second hand products the company sells. Cex no longer accept bitcoin as payment.[12]

In November 2017, Cex launched a technology repair service called CeXClinic[13] in the UK. The service covers the repair of video game consoles, smartphones, tablets and laptops. Cex offer a 2 year warranty on device repairs and a no fix, no fee promise to customers.

Number of stores

CountryStores
United Kingdom[14]366
Ireland38
United States[15]N/A[Note 1]
Spain60
Australia23
Netherlands14
India19
Mexico23
Poland8
Portugal13
Italy4
  1. ↑ At the end of January 2018, all Cex stores operating in the United States closed.

References

  1. ↑ "CeX (UK) : About CeX". uk.webuy.com.
  2. ↑ "What is CeX?". Cex. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
  3. ↑ Paul Farrington company obituary
  4. ↑ "The entrepreneurs". The Guardian. 11 April 1999. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  5. 1 2 "About CeX".
  6. ↑ "CeX (UK) Buy & Sell Games, Phones, DVDs, Blu-ray, Electronics, Computing, Vision & CDs". uk.webuy.com.
  7. ↑ "Is New Addington really a "benighted ghetto"? - Eastlondonlines". 10 September 2012.
  8. ↑ "The Secret Millionaire - S10 - Episode 5: Bobby Dudani". Radio Times.
  9. ↑ "Secret Millionaire yob out of job after six weeks". Your Local Guardian.
  10. ↑ "Secret Millionaire: CeX's Bobby Dudani goes undercover in Croydon".
  11. ↑ CeX Franchise review
  12. ↑ "CeX adopts Bitcoin".
  13. ↑ "CeX Repairs - Smartphone, Games Console, Tablet and Laptop Repairs - CeX Clinic". CeX Clinic.
  14. ↑ "CeX (UK) : Locate a CeX store". uk.webuy.com.
  15. ↑ "CeX US site home page". CeX. Archived from the original on 2018-02-02. We are sorry to announce that CEX will cease trading in the United States and subsequently will be closing all remaining stores by the end of January 2018.
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