‘The time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining’: Dixons Carphone commits to further investment following 13% sales hike
Dixons Carphone – established last year following the £3.7m merger of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse – has posted strong results for the fourth quarter, leading chief executive Sebastian James to commit to further investments in IT, customer service and staff training as well as its new mobile network, iD.
For the 17 weeks ended 2 May 2015 like-for-like sales in the UK were up 13 per cent while revenue was up nine per cent.
James attributed the positive results to good trading, driven by market share gain and by strong promotional periods - including Easter - coupled with streamlining the Group’s international assets, namely the disposal of non-core operations in Germany and The Netherlands.
He went on to say that despite this “excellent progress” Dixons Carphone still has much to do and will continue to invest heavily in the coming year.
“It is a truism that the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining, and we will pursue continued investment in the business this year to do just that […] Delivery options, IT investment, extending our free warranty programme, further training for our colleagues, Norwegian pricing and others are in our sights to make us stronger in the long term,” he explained.
He also lauded its new mobile network, iD which launched earlier this year.
“So far it is doing everything that we hoped it would, and some of the features we plan for the summer are genuinely unique,” he said.
Internationally, Southern Europe like-for-like revenue grew eight per cent. Growth was less impressive in the Nordics, up one per cent year on year.