Dixon Carphone enjoys Christmas electricals boost but mobile sales disappoint

Dixons Carphone had a mixed Christmas, with its electricals division holding up well in difficult conditions but its mobile phone business continuing to suffer.

Bosses revealed that sales in its electricals division – which includes Currys PC World – were up 2% on a like-for-like basis over the 10 weeks to January 4.

But at Carphone Warehouse sales fell 9% as the company gets to grips with the changing face of the market.

Chief executive Alex Baldock said: “Peak saw us continue to invest in our strategic initiatives with encouraging results.

“Credit and services adoption rates increased, online sales grew strongly, and our newly remodelled stores performed well.

“Coupled with our unambiguous ‘You won’t get it cheaper. Full stop’ price promise, alongside better availability and delivery, this led to big improvements in customer satisfaction and strong market share gains in electricals.”

He added that supersized TVs were particularly popular, with sales of 65-inch models up 75%. Dyson products, Shark vacuum sales, Fitbit, Apple Airpods and Nintendo Switches also did well.

Overseas, there was stronger growth for the retailer’s Nordics and Greek divisions, with like-for-like sales up 3% and 6% respectively.

Dixons Carphone added that demand for domestic appliances and kitchens was high, with online growth up 5%. In the UK and Ireland online sales rose 7%.

On the mobile business, the company said it is working on plans to launch a new offer later this year.

And its focus on selling goods on credit continues to be successful, with such transactions up 40% year on year.

Following the announcement to the stock exchange at 7am, the company was forced to issue a correction by early afternoon to clarify that its reported sales were down 2%, rather than up 2%, as previously said.

The drag on sales was primarily at the expense of an 11% fall in revenues in the UK and Ireland mobile division.