Dixons Retail today said it was in the best position it had been in for years after its multichannel businesses delivered healthy sales growth in its latest financial year. Chief executive Sebastian James told investors: “I believe that we have a clear business model that allows us to flourish in an internet world.”
The retailer, which trades in the UK primarily as Currys and PC World, said in a full-year and fourth quarter trading statement that its UK and Ireland, Northern and Southern European multichannel businesses saw like-for-like sales growth of 7% during the year to April 30. In the fourth quarter alone, like-for-like sales grew by 11%. In the UK and Ireland market, like-for-like sales grew by 13% “following the demise of competitors” such as Comet.
However Dixons Retail said it continued to act to turn around “very challenging” trading at its PIXmania business. It has closed all PIXmania’s stores, quit half the countries it operates in and moved out of non-core categories since taking full control of the business in August 2012.
The company also said that group underlying full-year profit was expected to come in at between £75m to £85m.
Chief executive Sebastian James said: “This strong year puts Dixons in the best position it has been in for many years. We have worked hard to improve the conversation that we have with our customers and to improve our shops and our prices. This is paying off as customers increasingly choose us when they need electrical products, and – more importantly – tell us that they like what we are doing.”
He continued: “I am very pleased to see us gaining share in nearly all of our multichannel businesses across Europe and could not be more excited or proud to be part of this team.
“It has been a busy time with the start of a profound restructuring of parts of the portfolio, major changes in the competitive landscape, significant cost savings achieved and with the continued drive to transform our stores. But there is still lots to do – we are continuing with more customer initiatives across our brands, online and in all of our services operations to make Dixons an even better place to shop.”
