Dixons Retail reports underlying profit of €87.87m

Electrical goods seller Dixons Retail eliminated more than £100 million (€124m) of net debt last year, but profits were dragged down by a poor performance in mainland Europe.

The England-based group, which operates the Currys, PC World and Dixons Travel chains, has reported an underlying profit of £70.8m (€87.87m) for the 12 months to the end of April. This, however, was down from a profit of £85.3m for the preceding financial year.

Profits in the group’s core Britain and Ireland division (the group has around 30 stores here) actually rose — from £68.7m to £78.8m; as they did in Northern Europe (Dixons also operates in Scandinavia and across six mainland European nations); from £102.1m to £113.9m. However, the southern European business — comprising Italy, Greece and Turkey — nearly doubled its annual losses to £30.4m.