Dixons Carphone shrugs off fears of slowdown in sales

Dixons Carphone has shrugged off fears of a high street slowdown after posting a strong set of results for the fourth quarter and raising its profit guidance for the year.

The retailer said it expects profit to come in at between £445 million and £450 million, 17 per cent more than last year.

UK like-for-like sales rose 4 per cent in the quarter and 6 per cent over the full year, with chief executive Seb James claiming consumers are “ready to spend”.

“There has been much commentary about the state of mind of UK consumers. Our view is that consumers are ready to spend but have, rightly, become more canny, and so need to be tempted with great deals and exciting new products. “We see this as encouraging; after all, launching new technology well, creating fun events and coming up with great deals for customers in both the digital and physical worlds is our stock-in-trade,” he said.

The outlet, born out of a merger between Dixons and Carphone Warehouse in 2014, said sales in the UK were driven by an increased share of the mobile phone market.

Across the group, which also operates in Scandinavia and southern Europe, like-for-like sales rose 5 per cent.

Dixons Carphone, which is behind Currys and PC World, said pricing is at its "most competitive ever" and customer satisfaction scores are at all-time highs. It also flagged that there are now 273 Carphone Warehouse concessions trading out of its store estate.

The results contrast with a spate of recent negative high street sales data and follow a warning from Next chief executive Lord Wolfson that the retail sector is facing its toughest year since the financial crisis.

PA