21 Jan 2015 07:00
Dixons Carephone PLC
Strong Christmas trading
Trading statement for the 9 weeks ended 3 January 2015
Highlights
• Group pro forma Headline PBT range of £355m to £375m expected for the full year, ahead of market consensus
• Group like-for-like up 7% for the Christmas trading period
• Further market share gains across electricals and mobile in the UK & Ireland, Nordics and Greece
• Group gross margin stable
Pro forma Headline like-for-like1 revenue | 9 weeks ended 3 January 2015 |
| ||||||||||
UK & Ireland | 8% |
| ||||||||||
Northern Europe | 6% |
| ||||||||||
Southern Europe | (4)% |
| ||||||||||
Group | 7% |
| ||||||||||
Sebastian James, Group Chief Executive, said:
"The strange shape of this year's Christmas trading was something of a roller-coaster but I am very pleased with the end result. In all of our largest trading markets we have excellent like-for-like performance against fairly tough comparables. At the same time, we have also experienced stable gross margin. There is no doubt that the huge scale and success of our Black Friday promotion impacted the three weeks that followed, but it was good to see customers respond positively to the deals that we had on Boxing Day where we saw growth from our record-breaking numbers last year in both the UK and Nordics. Our availability, pricing, service and marketing were all achieving very strong performance and customer metrics, and this translated into growth in market share in all our key territories over the period.
There have been some market shifts as product lifecycles and ways of buying change: online has risen as a proportion, with excellent growth in both home delivery and click-and-collect. Prepay phone sales have continued to fall, replaced by postpay contracts to a large extent. We have seen a return to growth in laptops but tablet sales fell sharply as we saw less innovation in the category. We have seen excellent growth in ultra-high-definition TVs as people, rightly, trade into the newer technologies. Finally, white goods had a very good peak trading period across the board with particularly rapid growth in online.
Our peak time of year is now behind us, and I am therefore comfortable to guide the market that our overall pro forma Headline profit before tax will be somewhere ahead of market expectations in the range of £355m to £375m. This includes continued price and service investment as well as, of course, the impact of the decline in the value of the Norwegian Krone which affects us negatively in Sterling terms.
These massively busy weeks take a toll on our colleagues - and their families - and this is a good opportunity for me to thank everybody in our stores, warehouses, call centres, shared service centres, delivery vehicles, repair laboratories and head offices around Europe for their extraordinary commitment and hard work. I have been consistently impressed by the way in which our teams have kept the great engines of the business turning through what must be one of the biggest years of change in our history."
Notes
(1) Like-for-like sales are calculated based on Headline store and internet sales using constant exchange rates. New stores are included where they have been open for a full financial year both at the beginning and end of the financial period. Closed stores are excluded for any period of closure during either period. Customer support agreement sales and income earned from insurance policies are excluded from like-for-like calculations, along with revenues from wholesale operations, Connected World Services and other non-retail businesses.
Investor and analyst webcast
There will be a conference call for investors and analysts at 9:00 am (GMT) this morning. The call will also be broadcast on our website, www.dixonscarphonegroup.com via a listen-in only webcast.
Dial-in details - UK/International: +44(0) 20 3003 2666; passcode: 5387541
Seven-day replay - UK/International: +44(0) 20 8196 1998; passcode: 1339203
Next announcement
The Group will publish its Q4 trading statement on Wednesday, 3 June 2015.
For further information
Kate Ferry | IR, PR & Corporate Affairs Director | +44 (0)7748 933 206 |
Kerry Becker | Head of Investor Relations | +44 (0)7748 910 861 |
Hannah Collyer | Head of Media Relations | +44 (0)1727 203 041 |
Nick Cosgrove, Helen Smith | Brunswick Group | +44 (0)207 404 5959 |
Information on Dixons Carphone plc is available at www.dixonscarphonegroup.com Follow us on Twitter: @dixonscarphone and @DCSebJ | ||
About Dixons Carphone Dixons Carphone plc is Europe's leading specialist electrical and telecommunications retailer and services company, employing over 40,000 people in 12 countries. Focused on helping customers navigate the connected world, Dixons Carphone offers a comprehensive range of electrical and mobile products, connectivity and expert after-sales services from the Geek Squad and Knowhow. Dixons Carphone's primary brands include Carphone Warehouse, Currys and PC World in the UK and Ireland, Elkjøp, El Giganten, Gigantti and Lefdal in the Nordic countries, Kotsovolos in Greece, Dixons Travel in a number of European airports and Phone House in Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Our key service brands include Knowhow in the UK, Ireland and the Nordics, Geek Squad in the UK, Ireland and various other European markets. Business-to-business services are provided through Connected World Services, PC World Business and Carphone Warehouse Business. Connected World Services aims to leverage the Group's existing expertise, operating processes and technology to provide a range of services to businesses. | ||
Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking. Such statements are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any expected future events or results referred to in these forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise required by applicable laws, regulations or accounting standards, we do not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. Information contained on the Dixons Carphone plc website or the Twitter feed does not form part of this announcement and should not be relied on as such.