Creating a “sustainable” multichannel business is a core focus for Dixons Retail, its chief executive has said.
In the company’s full-year trading statement, Sebastian James, chief executive of Dixons Retail, which operates the Dixons.co.uk, Pixmania, Currys and PC World brands, said the company had made “significant strides in the way we operate over the last four years.”
But, he said: “We are never satisfied that we are good enough though, and remain determined to make our business better, every single day, for our customers. By doing this we are confident that we will deliver a multi-channel business that is sustainable in a world where consumer shopping behaviours are constantly evolving.”
His comments came as Dixons Retail said online sales now accounted for 18% of its group sales. Multichannel sales were up by 30% in the second half of the year to April 28, and were up by 16% in the full year.
In the year to April 28, Dixons Retail said in the statement, like-for-like sales were down by 3%. Group underlying total sales were flat. Underlying pre-tax profits, it said, were expected to come in at between £65m and £70m, “towards the top end of expectations.”
The company pointed to stronger performances in the UK and Ireland towards the end of the year, with like-for-like sales up by 8% in the final quarter. In Northern Europe they were up by 10%. However, the Italian and Greek businesses were “impacted by continued difficult economic environments.”
The strong end to the year was “better than anticipated,” said James, and represented the fruits of work to improve both range and service. “We know that we have a clear role, shoulder-to-shoulder with our customers as we help them to navigate the increasingly complex world of technology,” he said. “We are seeing the benefits of this through our growing market share and significantly improving customer satisfaction scores. Our award winning KNOWHOW service brand is celebrating its first anniversary and is delivering a real difference for customers, performing ahead of our expectations and delivering services that our competitors are finding hard to match.”
