The Carphone Warehouse has announced that its third-quarter group revenues for 2007 were up 31.8pc following a good Christmas sales period.
It announced 19.2pc growth in connections, bringing its customer base to 3.26 million. The company opened 149 new stores in the quarter, taking the total to 2,070.
Its acquisition of AOL broght its broadband customer base up to 2.2 million residential customers. The company launched Virgin Mobile France earlier on in the year and reported that it has gained 379,000 customers.
“The completion of the AOL deal makes us the clear number three player in the UK broadband market with 2.2 million residential broadband customers, giving us the scale we need to deliver significant profitable growth in the medium term,” said Charles Dunstone, CEO, The Carhphone Warehouse.
Steve Mackerek, CEO, The Carphone Warehouse Ireland, commented: “We are delighted with our continued growth throughout 2006, with connections up almost 40pc on last year. Having had one of the busiest Christmas periods to date, it is clear that the Irish mobile phone market is continuing to perform strongly. The Carphone Warehouse now has 54 stores throughout Ireland and employs over 450 people. Due to this significant expansion, we have relocated our support centre to a state-of-the-art facility at the Omni Park Shopping Centre in Santry, which caters for over 100 of our staff.”
The Carphone Warehouse said outlook for 2007 remains good, with the market continuing to favour its impartial model. It expects further growth in distribution, driven by customer demand and by its own expansion plans.
It claimed to have significantly improved its provisioning and customer service processes for broadband customers and is ready to increase the rate of recruitment. As in Ireland, migration to unbundled lines remains crucial to future profitability in the UK market. In this regard, The Carphone Warehouse said it was encouraged by the progress being made by BT Openreach.
By Niall Byrne
