Dixons Carphone plc Peak trading was solid and in line with expectations, producing record sales

Dixons Carphone plc (LON:DC.), today announced trading Update for the 10 weeks ended 5 January 2018

· Group like-for-like revenue up 1%

o UK & Ireland electricals like-for-like up 2%

§ Share gains across all categories online and instore, offsetting market decline

o UK & Ireland mobile like-for-like down 7%

§ Continued decline in 24 month postpay market, down 8% in the period

§ Two-year like-for-like flat

o International like-for-like up 5%; Nordics up 3%; Greece up 19%

§ Gaining or holding share in all territories

· Stable gross margins across the Group

· 2018/19 Group headline PBT guidance of around £300m unchanged

· Good early progress on strategy implementation

                    *Difference between reported and like-for-like sales primarily due to previously announced store closures

Alex Baldock, Dixons Carphone, Group Chief Executive, said:

“Peak trading was solid and in line with expectations, producing record sales against a tough backdrop. We continued to grow our leading electrical market positions in all territories, online and instore. In UK mobile, performance was as expected. Overall, our Peak trading was disciplined and well-executed, with stable gross margins.

In UK electricals we grew sales, despite a challenging backdrop and a declining market. Sales were strong in all categories, with standout performances in TV (where we drove the supersizing trend), Smart Tech and Gaming. As the first category to benefit from our plans to bring more excitement to our stores, Gaming was the star performer with sales up 60%. Credit and Online contributed strongly, with our Reserve & Collect service having a strong Peak as we started to bring stores and online closer together. And our increased investment in colleagues produced an easier end-to-end customer experience, with improved availability and satisfaction. Our International business, which accounted for almost 40% of our sales, also produced an excellent performance, with Sweden, Denmark and Greece particularly strong.

As a result, our full year PBT guidance of around £300m remains unchanged.

We continue to make good early progress with our long term plans to deliver more engaged colleagues, more satisfied customers and a more valuable business for shareholders. It will take time and much hard work to unleash the true potential of this business, but we’re on with it. I owe a big thank you to 42,000 capable and committed colleagues for all their tremendous hard work to deliver this resilient Peak performance while getting our transformation underway.”

Operational highlights:

UK electricals

· Record Peak sales across all categories driven by Gaming, Smart Tech, Small Domestic Appliances and Vision

· Stand out performance from Gaming, up 60% year-on-year

· Overall product availability up on last year

· Market share up 30bps with growth across all categories and channels

· Good Peak on credit with customer base reaching 802,000 versus 711,000 at the half year

· Online growth of 8% over the period and YTD 28% of total sales, +2ppt year-on-year

UK mobile

· Mobile like-for-like down 7% as expected, impacted by lower volumes of 24 month postpay. Two-year like-for-like was flat in Q3 and like-for-like was down 3% YTD

· Market share in traditional 24 month postpay held against market declines of 8%. Growth in the new longer than 24 month postpay segment continued, an area we do not currently serve

· iD Mobile continued its growth with the customer base surpassing 975,000 customers

International

· In the Nordics, particularly strong growth in Sweden and Denmark with good growth in Norway also achieved, more than offsetting a softer market backdrop in Finland

· Record Black Friday and Peak period with particular strong performances in Gaming, Mobile, Consumer Electronics and Major Domestic Appliances

· Nordics market share up 20bps with growth across all categories and channels

· Greece: excellent performance across all categories with particularly strong growth in Mobile, Major Domestic Appliances and Large-Screen TVs

· International online growth of 22%