Carphone Warehouse owner returns €3.75m of pandemic wage subsidies to State

UK-listed retailing group, Dixon Carphone, which last week announced the closure of 81 Carphone Warehouse outlets in Ireland with the loss of 486 jobs, says it has repaid €3.75 million in wage subsidies to the Government.

The group, which also owns electrical goods retailer, Currys PC World, announced on Wednesday that it will repay a total of £73 million in pandemic subsidies to the administrations in Ireland and Britain.

Sales across the Currys PC World side of the business were up 11 per cent in the second half of the parent group’s fiscal year, which ended on April 24th. In Ireland, online sales at Currys.ie almost quadrupled, it said.

"Given the strong financial position of Dixons Carphone, the group has reimbursed all government support," it said.

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Redeploy

Jim O’Hagan, managing director for Ireland of the Currys PC World business, thanked the State for its support. The reimbursement here includes wage subsidies paid to the Carphone Warehouse workers who will lose their jobs. The group has said it will redeploy as many as possible of the affected workers in Ireland to Currys PC World.

In a pre-close trading statement on Wednesday, the parent group reported like-for-like sales growth of 14 per cent for the full year. It also announced the closure of all 35 of its Dixons Travel airport stores in Britain and Ireland, including one in Dublin and another in Belfast.