Dixons’ Irish sales grow
Electrical goods retail group Dixons-Carphone has reported strong sales growth in its Irish operations for the Christmas trading period.
The group trades here across the Currys-PC World, Carphone Warehouse, and Dixons Travel chains.
It said Currys-PC World saw a 22% year-on-year jump in sales in the 10 weeks to January 5. This was helped by a 17% increase in footfall on the ‘Black Friday’ sales day in November.
Carphone Warehouse saw a 10% increase in sales, here, during the period, with a 48% rise on Black Friday alone.
The group’s Irish-based online sales, over the period, grew by 70%.
“We continued to grow faster than our competitors in every single segment,” said Dixons-Carphone Ireland managing director Mark Delaney.
“Our investment in our online presence has brought class-leading innovation to our customers, who demand we deliver the best retail experience online,” said Mr Delaney.
On a group-wide basis, Dixons-Carphone reported flat growth, but said like-for-like sales crept up 1%. However, it said it was in good shape to operate effectively in all Brexit scenarios, including the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Business leaders have warned of chaos at ports if the UK does not agree on terms for its withdrawal from the EU, now just over two months away.
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“We can’t rule out that there might be some form of interruption. If there is, we are as well prepared as we can possibly be,” Dixons-Carphone group finance chief Jonny Mason said.
He said the group, which imports most of its product from Asia, had worked with suppliers to make sure product will keep flowing.
“Some of them have brought stock into the country so that it’s closer to where it needs to be for us,” he said.
Group chief executive Alex Baldock said Dixons-Carphone’s size gave it an advantage. “Because of the market leadership positions that we’ve got… we matter a lot to our suppliers,” he said.
To almost all of these suppliers, we’re by some distance their largest customer in the UK. That translates into preferential treatment when it comes to being first in the queue for scarce stock.”
Dixons-Carphone said its turnaround plan had made a good start.
Its shares, down 26% year-on-year prior to the update, rose as much as 5.5%.
