Carphone Warehouse store. Image: Michaelpuche/Shutterstock
Demand for fitness bands, camcorders and large screen TVs saw consumer electronics chain Dixons Carphone beat trading forecasts over the key Christmas quarter.
Dixons Carphone said that over Christmas and during the January sales, there was significant growth in online traffic, with the store also reporting a lift in like-for-like footfall nationwide.
It said that in the UK and Ireland, like-for-like revenue improved by approximately 6pc.
‘At a time of significant political uncertainty around the world, it was heartening to see that customers were choosing to enjoy the benefits that new technologies could bring to their lives’
– SEB JAMES
The company has said it is keeping its profit outlook for the full year.
Online and store footfall increases
“Across Currys PCWorld nationwide, last Christmas saw increases year-on-year across online sales, footfall and device sales, with a big increase in smart fitness watches and bands, GoPro/Action Camcorders as well as an increase in larger value items like large-screen TVs, with the majority of customers opting for higher specification models,” a spokesperson said.
The company trades as Currys, PCWorld and Carphone Warehouse in Ireland and the UK. It is known as Elkjøp and Elgiganten in Nordic countries, and Kotsovolos in Greece.
“At a time of significant political uncertainty around the world, it was heartening to see that customers were choosing to enjoy the benefits that new technologies could bring to their lives during this holiday season,” said Seb James, group CEO of Dixons Carphone.
“This year, as a result of our scale in all of our markets, we were able to offer prices that were truly groundbreaking 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.
“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.”
Carphone Warehouse store. Image: Michaelpuche/Shutterstock
