LONDON (Alliance News) - Dixons Carphone PLC on Wednesday reported lower profit in its recently ended financial year due to non-recurring costs of restructuring its store portfolio, declaring it will remain "the leader in the UK market" despite expected volatility arising from the UK Brexit vote.
The mobile phones and electronics retailer said pretax profit in the year ended April 30 decreased to GBP263 million from GBP287 million the year before, despite revenue rising to GBP9.74 billion from GBP8.26 billion.
Headline pretax profit, which excludes non-recurring items such as acquisitions and merger costs, rose to GBP447 million from GBP381 million, in line with analyst and company expectations.
In the UK, Dixons Carphone has been working on a 3-in-1 store concept, whereby it is merging its Carphone Warehouse, Currys and PC World brands under one roof. It expects to complete this project in the new financial year.
Revenue growth was boosted by a strong performance in the UK & Ireland, offsetting a weaker performance in the Nordics and Southern Europe due to the devaluation of the Norwegian krone and the euro.
Dixons Carphone will pay a total dividend of 9.75 pence for the year, up 15% from 8.50p the year before. This short of expectations of a 10.75p payout.
"We have very ambitious plans this year which includes making every one of the former Dixons stores one of the new 3-in-1 shops, introducing a lively and interactive new e-commerce platform to Carphone Warehouse, opening Europe's most modern distribution centre in Sweden, introducing same-day delivery, rolling out around 150 new stores in the US with Sprint, delivering our honeyBee platform to major global clients, launching our new home services division with a mandate to become a true emergency service for customers across the UK, and continuing to drive market share, price competitiveness and customer satisfaction everywhere. It is likely to be busy," Chief Executive Seb James said in a statement.
Dixons Carphone added that despite the volatility it expects to see following the EU referendum result, it expects to find opportunities for additional growth and "further consolidate our position as the leader in the UK market".
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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