Retailer enjoys a merry Christmas
Mobile phone retailer and telecoms service provider Carphone Warehouse revealed group revenues soared 31.8 per cent to£1.08 billion for the 13 weeks to December 30, following another very good Christmas.

Retail revenue increased 19.8 per cent to£571.3 million and like-for-likes rose 7.3 per cent during the third quarter, with like-for-like retail gross profit also up 3 per cent.

Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone said: 'Delivering profitable like-for-like growth after last year's very strong performance is a great achievement, reflecting all our people's efforts and driving market share gains through the strength of our customer proposition.'

He added: 'The completion of the AOL deal makes us the clear number-three player in the UK broadband market, with 2.2 million residential broadband customers, giving us the scale we need to deliver significant profitable growth in the medium term.'

In telecoms, Dunstone revealed that in the first nine months, Virgin Mobile France established itself as the fastest growing virtual network in the market with 379,000 active customers. The network is now increasing its customer base as the brand becomes more prominent and distribution becomes broader.

In addition, US joint venture Best Buy Mobile has enjoyed a promising start.

Dunstone added: 'Overall, we anticipate a full-year result in line with current market expectations.'

During the third quarter, the group opened a further 149 stores, taking the total to 2,070.