Dixons Carphone posts full year profit fall
Dixons Carphone has seen its full year adjusted pre-tax profit drop to £166 million from £339 million in the previous year due to a poor performance at its Carphone Warehouse mobile business and the effect of Covid-19 store closures.
In the 53 weeks to 2 May, UK and Ireland electricals revenue edged up 1% while international revenue rose by 2% after sales increased in the retailer’s businesses in Greece and Nordic region.
However, group sales fell by 3% to £10.17 billion.
Alex Baldock, Dixons Carphone group chief executive, said: “The first ten months of the year was a story of delivering on our promises and accelerating the transformation of Dixons Carphone. We gained market share online as well as in stores, grew credit and services, drove big improvements in customer satisfaction, took difficult but essential decisions such as closing our UK standalone mobile stores, and were on track to meet financial expectations.
“With Covid-19, our immediate priorities abruptly changed to keeping everyone safe, helping our customers and securing our future.”
Dixons Carphone said the performance in its UK and Ireland mobile business was impacted by customers continuing to change the way they buy mobile devices and connectivity. This has seen them replace their handsets less often and change to buying them separately or as part of more flexible bundles. The business also took a bigger hit from Covid-19 store closures than Dixons’ electricals business. As a result, mobile revenue was down 20% year-on-year.
Looking ahead, Baldock said: “With Covid-19, our immediate priorities abruptly changed to keeping everyone safe, helping our customers and securing our future. Since the year end, all our electricals businesses have continued to grow sales. Where our stores have reopened we’ve performed well, while continuing to see strong online sales growth. That said, we expect a weakening of consumer spending later this year and are being cautious in our planning.”
·
