Dixons group suffers 9% fall in sales

FIRST-quarter sales at electrical goods retailer Dixons fell by 1% on a year-on-year basis, the group said yesterday, with its core Irish and British division seeing a 9% sales fall.

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.