Carphone content with Christmas trading

Carphone Warehouse stuck by profit forecasts today after a strong December helped its stores produce a 13% rise in third quarter revenues.

The improvement to £650m (€875m) in the 13 weeks to December 29 included a 1% gain in like-for-like sales after total connections lifted 11% to 3.6 million.

Carphone said the pre-pay market was a little more subdued than last year, although it said it still grew its share of the sector during the period.

At its TalkTalk arm, revenues rose 36% to £349m (€470m) after the company added 118,000 broadband customers, taking its total base to 2.6 million. Despite significant numbers of TalkTalk customers coming out of their initial 18 month deals, Carphone said it saw no increase in churn levels.