Carphone Warehouse has completed the sale of its South African call centre subsidiary The Phone House.

Business process outsourcing provider eTelecare Global Solutions bought the business for£3.7m.

As part of the deal eTelecare will provide outsourced call centre services to TalkTalk’s UK customers for three years.

UK like-for-like sales at Carphone Warehouse's retail arm Best Buy Europe increased 8.3 per cent increase in the 13 weeks to December 27, although margins and profits suffered. Overall sales for the quarter rose 13 per cent to just over£1bn.

The company said the fall in gross profit and margin – which is expected to be down 150 basis points for the full year – was the result of a "deliberately aggressive trading stance to grow market share".