‘Ground-breaking’ deals see festive sales surge at Dixons
ELECTRICALS AND mobile phones giant Dixons Carphone hailed its fifth year in a row of Christmas sales growth after luring in shoppers with “groundbreaking” deals.
The group said it notched up a 6 per cent surge in like-for-like sales across stores in the UK and Ireland over the 10 weeks to January 7, although 4 per cent of this was thanks to sales transferred from closed stores.
Dixons confirmed expectations for a “meaningful” hike in annual profits after its solid festive performance, in line with market forecasts for between £475m and £495m for the year to April 29.
Seb James, group chief executive of Dixons Carphone, said: “I am pleased to be reporting another good Christmas period of growth – our fifth consecutive year.”
He added: “This year, as a result of our scale in all of our markets, we were able to offer prices that were truly ground-breaking during both our Black Friday week and our annual Boxing Day week sales – while maintaining margins – and we believe that we have outperformed the market during the period.” The group said sales growth was particularly strong for UK and Ireland electricals, with like-for-like sales growth of 9 per cent, although again much of this was down to the transfer of sales from closed stores.
Its festive sales hike came after its biggest ever Black Friday trading in November, while it also cheered a strong online performance – particular for white goods, such as fridges and dishwashers.
Demand was robust for large screen televisions – a “bellwether for consumer sentiment”, according to Dixons.
It said it saw more than 10 times the number of shoppers buying 70-inch televisions. Other best-sellers included the Dyson Hairdryer, while it sold one cordless vacuum cleaner every five seconds over the festive season.
But it said sales of phones and tablets were hit by “patchy availability” of the larger models and so-called ‘phablet’ smartphones as manufacturers underestimated demand.
Mr James said around 30 per cent of shoppers buying phones wanted the very large models, such as the Samsung Note, but they were in “short supply”.
Dixons said overall group likefor-like sales rose 4 per cent in the 10-week festive period, with sales 1 per cent lower in the Nordics and 5 per cent higher in southern Europe.
We believe that we have outperformed the market. Seb James, group chief executive of Dixons Carphone