Agenda: Dixons Carphone and N Brown update the market

Tesco

Tesco holds its capital markets day on Tuesday, giving investors and analysts a deeper understanding of the grocery business.

Tesco’s like-for-likes inched up in its first-quarter results earlier this week as its sales were boosted by its merger with Booker.

UK and Ireland sales rose 0.8% on a like-for-like basis and 1.3% on a total basis, reaching £11.16bn. However, UK total sales dipped 0.4%, though like-for-likes rose 0.4%.

Booker drove growth, with like-for-likes up 3.1% and total sales up 12.4% to £1.51bn.

Along with its results, boss Dave Lewis warned that leaving the EU in October would be “much more challenging” for retailers than the previously planned March Brexit.

Dixons Carphone

Dixons Carphone posts its preliminary results on Thursday.

The electricals specialist posted a 24% decline in pre-tax profits to £382m in the 12 months to April 28 2018 as group revenue rose 4% to £10.5bn.

The retailer warned on profits last May and cautioned “necessary action to correct recent under-investment in our colleagues and customer proposition”, “further contraction” in the electricals market and “market and contractual pressures” in the mobile phones market will hit profits in 2018/19.

N Brown

N Brown posts its first-quarter results on Thursday.

Group sales fell 1.6% in the 18 weeks to January 5, buoyed by a financial services rise of 9.7%. Product sales fell 6%, with power brand sales rising just 0.1%. Simply Be and Jacamo sales rose by 1.6% and 5.5% respectively, but JD Williams pulled the power brand trio down, with sales falling 3.3%.

Secondary brand sales fell 5.2%, while traditional brand sales slumped 22.9% – but despite a promotional environment and poor sales, the group managed to maintain margin.

ONS Retail Sales Index

The latest ONS Retail Sales Index is released on Thursday.

In the three months to April 2019, retail sales increased 1.8% when compared to the previous three months.

Online fashion retailers drove the figures up, with the boost being attributed to warmer weather.

Ecommerce accounted for 18.7% of total sales and overall growth of 10.1% when compared with the same month the previous year.