Carphone Warehouse chief executive Charles Dunstone fired a shot across the bows of his competitors this week, vowing to weather any downturn by growing market share.

Speaking at the Retail Week Conference, he said: “It is only when the tide goes out that we can see who is swimming naked,” drawing on the wisdom of investment guru Warren Buffett.

Dunstone (pictured) said consumers appreciate retailers that innovate and one of his ideas to stay competitive is to tap the growing market of children owning their own laptop. Carphone Warehouse “has to find a way to subsidise the purchase of laptops in the same way that we have done for mobile phones”, he explained.

Read the full conference report in next week’s Retail Week