Sales in the UK and Ireland up six per cent from last year as retail giant claims it outperformed the market
Dixons Carphone has reported its fifth successive year of Christmas growth, with Group sales up four per cent from the previous 12 month period.
The retail giant this morning published its financial results for the 10 weeks ended January 7, 2017.
Sales in the UK and Ireland were up six per cent year-on-year and by five per cent in Southern Europe.
However, numbers in the Nordics were down by a percentage point. Dixons Carphone Group chief executive Seb James said this market was “a little quieter than normal across this period”. It did not provide a detailed of the figures.
He claimed the company “outperformed the market during the period”, with Black Friday (November 25, 2016) its biggest ever across the Group.
As a result, James said it expects a “meaningful uplift” in year-on-year profitability in its full financial year. compared to the previous 12 month period, forecasted to be between £475 million to £495 million.
‘Outperformed the market’
“This year, as a result of our scale in all of our markets, we were able to offer prices that were truly ground-breaking during both our Black Friday week and our annual Boxing Day week sales – while maintaining margins – and we believe that we have outperformed the market during the period,” said James.
“It was interesting to see the shape of peak trading this year: Black Friday was our biggest ever across the Group and in the UK we saw trading stretch further across the week as well.
“Patchy availability of the larger, higher margin phones and tablets made these categories tougher this year but – on the other hand – offers up opportunities for next year where we do not expect the same issues.
“As a result, and despite the fact that there is quite a bit of the year to go, we anticipate a meaningful uplift in year-on-year profitability this year over last and confirm our outlook in line with market consensus at £475m-£495m of headline profit before tax for the year ending 29 April 2017.”