Dixons Carphone Sees Strong Growth In Greece

Dixons Carphone (LSE: DC.L - news) has seen a 21% rise in profits in the year to May, helped in part by strong growth in Greece.

The electrical goods retailer made £381m before tax in 2014/5, compared to £316m in 2013/4.

Share (LSE: SHRE.L - news) value also increased by 53% in the same period.

The annual financial results are the first to be released since Dixons Carphone was created last year through a merger of electrical giant Dixons and mobile phone company Carphone Warehouse.

The group’s CEO, Sebastian James, said: "This has been a terrific first year for Dixons Carphone.

“We have seen excellent increases in both sales and profitability and we have made very encouraging progress with the tricky job of integrating these two great companies.

“At the same time, we have continued to generate strong customer satisfaction numbers, made significant strides in our Connected World Services business including our agreement with Sprint, and launched a brand new mobile network.”

The company, which operates retail chains Carphone Warehouse and Currys/PC World in the UK, benefited from cheaper prices and improved delivery options as well as increased demand for smart technology.

It was also helped by the collapse of rival mobile phone retailer Phones4U, which went into administration in September last year.

Dixons Carphone’s Greek business arm, Kotsovolos, also experienced strong revenue growth from last year, helped in part by customers buying large-ticket items like televisions and white goods in order to invest their cash in material items rather than leaving it in the banks.

Kotsolovos operates 70 stores in Greece.

Finance director Humphrey Singer, who is holding daily conference calls with the business in the country, said they were still concerned about the ongoing crisis despite a bailout deal being agreed this week.

"It's still too early to relax," he said.

"It seems like things are more positive than they were immediately after the referendum, but things have turned and changed in that market very rapidly before."

In an unusual move Mr Singer said Kotsolovos agreed to pay its staff in cash last week due to restrictions on the banking system in Greece.

"Staff welcomed being paid in cash because they didn't want the money going into a bank account they couldn't then access," Singer said.

"If things progress OK in the next couple of days, maybe by the next monthly payroll things will be back to normal."