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Christmas trading was something of a roller-coaster for Dixons Carphone, according to the company’s CEO.
The firm, which owns tech retail chains Currys, PC World, Carphone Warehouse and more, released its Christmas trading statement for the nine weeks ending January 3rd 2015.
Dixons Carphone revealed that its overall pro forma headline profit before tax will be in the range of £355 million to £375 million – ahead of market expectations.
The group as a whole reported like-for-like sales rose by seven per cent for the Christmas trading period, while its like-for-like revenue in UK and Ireland was up by eight per cent.
The company also saw further market share gains across electrical and mobile in the UK and Ireland, Nordics and Greece.
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.
"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.
"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.
He added: "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.
"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."
