Dixons Carphone rings up Christmas sales boost

The electricals and mobile communications specialist reported like-for-likes up 1% at group level in the 10 weeks to January 5.

Dixons Carphone’s core UK and Ireland electricals business notched up a like-for-like sales rise of 2%.

However, the troubled mobile phones division suffered a slide in like-for-likes of 7%.

Dixons Carphone said it made market share gains in electricals across all categories online and in-store, but mobiles were hit by an ongoing decline in the 24-month postpay market, which was down 8%.

International like-for-likes rose 5%.

The retailer reported that gross margins were stable across the business and maintained its full-year profit guidance of £300m.

Dixons Carphone chief executive Alex Baldock said: “Peak trading was solid and in line with expectations, producing record sales against a tough backdrop.

“We continued to grow our leading electrical market positions in all territories, online and in-store. In UK mobile, performance was as expected. Overall, our peak trading was disciplined and well-executed.”

He flagged “standout performances” in TV, on the back of the “supersizing” trend, and in smart tech and gaming.

Baldock said: “As the first category to benefit from our plans to bring more excitement to our stores, gaming was the star performer with sales up 60%. Credit and online contributed strongly, with our Reserve & Collect service having a strong peak as we started to bring stores and online closer together.

“And our increased investment in colleagues produced an easier end-to-end customer experience, with improved availability and satisfaction.”