Dixons group suffers 9% fall in sales
Management at Dixons Retail PLC (formerly DSG International) — the group which owns the Dixons, Currys and PC World retail chains — said that the quarter, running to the end of July, compared directly with a stronger first quarter to last year, which featured strong early sales of the Apple iPad product and coincided with the football World Cup in South Africa.
While the core division of the group suffered during the latest period, sales in Scandinavia were up by 15% year-on-year and a 3% rise was evident in the mainland Europe division, despite the group announcing the closure of its loss-making 34-store operation in Spain.
Group chief executive John Browett said that the first quarter performance was in line with expectations and that the group remains on track to meet its full-year financial targets.
“While underlying market conditions have remained challenging this year, we’ve continued to trade ahead of our markets, as customers respond to our improving customer offer,” he said.
“While we remain cautious about the economic outlook, we’ll continue to deliver on our ‘renewal and transformation’ plan and make the business better, easier and cheaper to run and deliver an unbeatable combination of value, choice and service for customers.”
In Ireland, Dixons Retail operates around 30 stores across the Curry and PC World brands and has been expanding in recent years.
