Dixons Carphone today cut its dividend and warned its turnaround plan would take time after slumping to a £440m first half loss, sending its shares sharply lower.
Shares in the group, which trades as Currys PC World and Carphone Warehouse in Ireland and the UK, were down 8.6% today, taking their fall for the year to 30%.
Dixons Carphone has been hurt by tougher conditions in the mobile phone market as customers keep their handsets longer.
While it is still market leader in Britain and Ireland, reduced sales of handsets have resulted in a declining share and a loss-making business.
Chief executive Alex Baldock, who joined only in April, has been critical of previous management.
He plans to restore the mobile business to profit by putting its relationships with network operators - EE, O2 Vodafone and 3 - on to a more sustainable footing, with increased handset choice and improved terms.
Other elements of his strategy include focusing on its core electricals business and the growth areas of online and credit.
"There are headwinds and uncertainty facing any business serving the UK consumer, we've had our own challenges, and our plan will take time," said Baldock.
"But, with this plan, we can now see the way to unleashing the true potential of this business," he added.
Baldock also said the group had no current plans for store closures beyond the 102 already announced.
The chief executive is targeting an operating margin improvement to at least 3.5% over five years, an additional £200m of cost savings and an additional £200m of capital expenditure over three years.
He also wants to get Dixons Carphone's workforce of 30,000 behind the strategy by awarding each of them at least £1,000 of shares.
Dixons Carphone's statutory pretax loss of £440m for the 26 weeks to October 27 reflected the booking of £490m of exceptional charges, mainly related to writing-off goodwill in the mobile business.
The company had posted a pre-tax profit of £54m a year earlier.
The group said it was taking the "prudent" measure of cutting its dividend by about 40% this year so that the payout and pension fund contributions are covered by free cash flow.
Its interim payout was cut to 2.25 pence from 3.5 pence last time.
The group also trades as Elkjøp, Elgiganten and Gigantti in Nordic countries and Kotsovolos in Greece.
Its underlying pretax profit of £50m was ahead of analysts' expectations but down from £73m last time. Guidance for the full 2018-19 year was maintained at £300m.
Analysts said that although the company faces structural headwinds in mobile and ongoing Brexit related currency risk, it should be able to benefit from its strong relative position in the UK and Nordic electricals and to release cash from the mobile business over time.
Dixons Carphone Ireland saw a TV sold every minute on Black Friday
Mark Delaney, Managing Director of Dixons Carphone Ireland, said the chain had another record breaking Black Friday and 18-day Black Tag event this year.
Mr Delaney said the company is on track to further grow market share across all electronic and white good categories beyond last year's increases.
"Black Friday alone saw an outstanding performance with an online order placed every eight seconds and a TV sold every minute," Mr Delaney added.
He also noted that the Irish Currys PC World stores reported a 14.2% increase in footfall over the previous year across all its retail network.
"Over the Black Tag period we saw major sales in Smart Home (Google Mini and Amazon Echo) devices, 55 to 65 inch premium 4K TVs, HP laptops, gaming laptops, Samsung tablets, Apple Airpods, and 32 inch Smart TVs," Mr Delaney said.
Gaming was also "huge" for Dixons Carphone Ireland this year, he added.
