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Mega-firm Carphone Dixons toasts £375m profit forecast
Unlikely to bring cheer to 800 made redundant since merger
Dixons Carphone Warehouse has raised its profit expectation for its first financial year 2014/15 to £355m-£375m, following a bumper Christmas trading period.
The firm owns Currys, PC World and Carphone Warehouse and was formed by of a £3.7bn merger between Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse in May last year.
In the nine weeks to 3 January, the mega retailer reported a revenue increase of seven per cent. However, it did not release an overall sales figure.
Rouglhy a fortnight ago, El Reg revealed that 800 UK staffers have been made redundant or put at risk of redundancy since the mega merger – around two per cent of roles.
In a conference call this morning, Sebastian James, group chief executive, said that overall the deal was a "job-creating merger", with the workforce expected to grow by four per cent. A reduction of two per cent ascribed to duplicated roles is now largely complete, he said.
"It is easier to find jobs for people in organisation in a time of growth and [the recent results] been helpful for our colleagues [in that respect]."
The company did not go into detail about its Christmas sales, but noted laptops were "back into growth" while tablet sales were "down substantially."
It also reported that a "restructuring programme" is underway in the Netherlands and Germany, with the company exiting some of the retail market.
The company now employs 40,000 people across 12 countries. ®