As sales fall, Carphone boss moans .

DIXONS Carphone has sparked fears over shop closures and job losses – and admitted customers don’t want to pay £1,000 for the latest iPhone.

Carphone Warehouse, which is owned by the group, has over 700 shops on the UK high street and is considered to be Britain’s biggest mobile phone retailer.

It also owns PC World and consumer electronics retailer Dixons, as well as companies in Scandinavia, Greece and Spain.

Dixons Carphone blamed a 3pc drop in UK mobile phone sales on the delayed launch of the iPhone X, which costs £999.

But chief executive Seb James said yesterday: ‘Phones have got a lot more expensive, particularly the new iPhone which costs £1,000, meaning that monthly tariffs have gone up quite substantially.

Someone coming from an iPhone 6 two years ago is now going rom £36 per month to £63 per month for the same deal, which is a big leap. So some customers are thinking, “Crikey, that’s quite a lot.”

‘Customers are thinking “This is a lot more expensive...so maybe I should just hang on to my phone until I drop it.”’

Analysts were sceptical of plans for its mobile business, speculating that this meant Carphone Warehouse stores would shut.

George Salmon, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: ‘The latest models aren’t prompting the same scramble to the tills they used to.’

Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said: ‘With over 700 Carphone stores in a total estate in excess of 1,000, there is ample opportunity to rationalise and improve profitability in mobile.’ However, James, chief executive of Dixons Carphone, said ‘We don’t have any particular plans to shut stores but we are reviewing it all the time. We have, over the year in our Dixons estate, moved the PC World and Currys shops together, and we’ve done that maintaining not only the number of people we employ but also sales levels.

‘In fact we’ve grown sales while reducing our estate by almost half in Dixons.’

The retail group saw profits more than halve in the 26 weeks to October 28, falling to £61m from £154m a year earlier.