Carphone Warehouse UK has revealed a like-for-like surge of 16% in its third quarter, driven by sales of tablets, the phones retailer reiterates in full-year profit guidance.
European like-for-likes were up 7.8%, driven by “strong momentum on tablets”.
Carphone Warehouse chief executive Roger Taylor said: “I am delighted with the performance of our UK business over the Christmas quarter. We substantially grew market share in both prepay and postpay, and gained authority in tablets. This reflects extremely well on our team and on our policy of investing in our proposition to give our customers compelling offers on smartphones and tablets, accepting some margin investment.”
However, Taylor added that trading in its stores in France had been “particularly challenging”. He said for that reason, along with them the margin investment in the UK, the retailer will not be changing its full-year earnings guidance.
Carphone Warehouse Europe is expected to notch up pre-tax profits of between £135m and £145m in its full year.
The retailer said it “made significant progress in establishing Carphone Warehouse as a destination for tablets” in the UK over the quarter.
Carphone Warehouse added: “The overall economic and mobile industry backdrop has not altered, but we remain well-placed to benefit from an exciting range of smartphones and tablets. The reorganisation of our business has enabled improved focus and operational execution, helping to achieve market share gains with strong like-for-like and top-line performance.
“We are still sub-scale in parts of Continental Europe and as such these markets will remain comparatively challenging. While the UK has enjoyed good like-for-like growth, these improvements have largely been driven through investment in the proposition. Therefore, we are reiterating our guidance for Group Headline EPS.”
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