Dixons Carphone raids Tesco for new finance boss as festive sales rise

The retailer said sales of electricals jumped 11% on a like-for-like basis across the group during the 10 weeks to January 9. In its core UK and Ireland business, like for likes in the electricals category were up 8%, as online growth surged 121%. 

Sales in its mobile phone division slumped 40%, by contrast, but the retailer said this was “in line with plan” following the closure of all standalone Carphone Warehouse stores last April.  

The figures came as Dixons Carphone revealed it has poached Tesco’s Bruce Marsh to become its new chief financial officer. Marsh has been the supermarket giant’s finance director for the UK and Ireland since 2015. 

Marsh previously spent time at Kingfisher, where he was director of Kingfisher future homes and group strategy director, and also held a number of senior finance roles at Dixons Retail prior to its merger with Carphone Warehouse.

Current finance boss Jonny Mason will remain at the business for a transition period with a departure date to be confirmed “in due course”.

Marsh joins Dixons Carphone at what boss Alex Baldock described as “a testing time” for the business.

Despite the turbulent backdrop posed by the coronavirus crisis, the group grew its online market share six percentage points during the peak 10-week period.

It said the highest growth categories were large-screen TVs, smart tech, food preparation, health and beauty, and computing and gaming.

International like-for-like growth of 14% was hindered by its Greek business, which saw a 13% slump in comparable sales.

Baldock said: “We’re winning online, where we’re the biggest and fastest-growing specialist technology retailer in all our markets. And even where stores have been closed, our work to bring the best of digital and physical shopping to every customer has borne fruit in such innovations as our one-hour drive-thru order and collect and ShopLive.”

Baldock cautioned that “the outlook remains uncertain” but insisted Dixons Carphone was “still far from our full potential”.

“This strong performance makes us more confident than ever that we’re on the right path to create a world class business for colleagues, customers, shareholders and society,” he added.