Merger magic at Dixons as profits charge higher

Dixons Carphone yesterday hailed a “terrific year” as it revealed a 21 per cent surge in profits in its first set of annual results since being created following a merger between two of the high street’s biggest names.

Dixons Carphone has seen profits leap to 381m in the 13 months to 2 May. Picture: Getty

The group behind Carphone Warehouse and Currys PC World said underlying pre-tax profits leapt to £381 million in the 13 months to 2 May after robust trading for both its electricals and mobile business.

UK and Ireland like-for-like sales rose 8 per cent over the year helped by the firm’s “most competitive ever” pricing on electricals, while its mobile business was also given a boost by the demise of rival Phones 4U.

Sebastian James, group chief executive, said: “This has been a terrific first year for Dixons Carphone. We have seen excellent increases in both sales and profitability and we have made very encouraging progress with the tricky job of integrating these two great companies.”

The group said it would meet £80m in cost savings targets from its merger a year earlier than planned, adding that work to combine the two companies was “progressing well”.

Despite recent concerns that its Greek arm Kotsovolos would be impacted by the bailout crisis in the country, Dixons said strong sales of large-screen TVs helped boosted like-for-like sales.