Electricals and mobile phone retailer Dixons Carphone today reported a slump in first-half profit, hurt by a weak mobile market as customers hold on to handsets for longer.
The group trades as Currys, PC World and Carphone Warehouse in Ireland and the UK, Elkjop and Elgiganten in Nordic countries and Kotsovolos in Greece.
It said today it would reposition its mobile business to deliver a simpler, less capital-intensive operation.
Chief executive Seb James said the company had made "a very conscious decision to fight hard to drive sales" in its mobile business, retaining its position as the UK market leader, but the move had hit profitability.
He said a combination of higher handset costs and relatively incremental technology growth meant customers were holding onto handsets for longer and some were choosing a SIM-only contract in the meantime.
"In addition, the later launch of the iPhone X pushed some sales into the second half of our financial year," he said.
But he said he was encouraged by the performance of its electricals businesses, and said the peak trading period had started well with sales records being broken in all territories.
He added that November's Black Friday sales event, which came after the end of the reported period, had been a "cracker".
"We had an all time record Black Friday in all of our territories," he stated.
Dixons Carphone made an underlying pretax profit of £61m in the 26 weeks to October 28. That compares to analysts' average forecast of £63m and £144m made the same time last year.
Dixons Carphone issued a profit warning in August and its shares have more than halved this year.
It said group like-for-like sales rose 4% in the first half, and were up 3% in the second quarter.
The group said it expected to deliver full year 2017-18 underlying pretax profit of £360-400m compared to guidance in August of £360-440m.
