Dixons Carphone posts drop in full year profit
Dixons Carphone has reported a fall in pre-tax profit as its chief executive said the retailer had “plenty of work to do” to improve the business.
In the year to 28 April statutory profit before tax dropped to £289 million from £404 million in the previous year after non-headline charges of £93 million were included. The company said profit had also been impacted by challenges in the UK mobile market and a shift in category mix towards consumer electronics and white goods due to a softer computing market in the period.
Like-for-like revenue across the business was up 4% after UK and Ireland like-for-likes rose by 2%. Like-for-likes in the company’s Nordic and Greek businesses increased by 9% and 11% respectively,
Meanwhile group revenue rose by 3% although there was a 1% fall in the UK and Ireland.
Last week Dixons Carphone revealed that it had discovered a cyberattack in which hackers had gained access to some customers’ payment cards and personal data details.
Commenting on the results, Alex Baldock, Dixons Carphone group chief executive, said: “It’s now a little over three weeks since our last trading statement, and just over two months since I joined. I’m delighted to be at Dixons Carphone, in a business with so many strengths, and with so much more to go for. Recent events have underlined that we have plenty of work to do, and it will take time, but I’m even more confident than the day I took the job in our long-term prospects.”
The company said it has already taken action to increase its investment in staff and the customer experience, and to improve its performance in the UK.
Baldock added: “We’re number one, maintaining or growing share in each of our markets, with people and scale multichannel capabilities no competitor can rival.
“We can make more of these strengths, by bringing clear long-term direction that sharpens our focus on our core, and that better joins up both our offer to customers and our business behind the scenes. There’s nothing here that can’t be done, and we expect top and bottom-line benefit of doing it.”
The news follows the announcement of a drop in the retailer’s full year profit in June when Baldock said the company had “plenty of work to do” to improve its business.
