Electricals retailer Currys has today trimmed its full-year profit guidance after what it called a "challenging" technology market at Christmas with uneven customer demand and supply disruption.
The group, which trades from more than 800 stores in seven countries and online, said it expected to deliver a full-year 2021-22 adjusted pretax profit of around £155m.
This compares to last month's guidance of about £160m and the £156m made in 2020-21.
Currys said like-for-like revenue fell 5% in the 10 weeks to January 8 year-on-year, but was up 4% against the same time in 2019-20, before the pandemic impacted trading.
UK & Ireland revenue fell 6% year-on-year, while international revenue (the Nordics and Greece) fell 3% year-on-year.
The group, previously known as Dixons Carphone, said the overall UK technology market was down 10% compared to last year's peak period.
"Currys came through this market turbulence well. We gained share in the UK, extending our market leadership," its chief executive Alex Baldock said.
"At the same time, we focused on profitable sales, with good discipline on margin, cost and stock," Mr Baldock added.
The CEO said the group had exited the peak period with stock in a good position although it was continuing to face into uncertain demand and supply chain disruption which meant there were some areas where availability "remains challenged".
Currys maintained its medium-term guidance - free cash flow generation of more than £1 billion over 2019-20 to 2023-24 and an adjusted EBIT margin of at least 4% by 2023-24.
The Currys boss also said today that consumers should expect to pay more for electricals and technology products in 2022.
"One of the things that we do expect across the market in 2022 are some price rises, we think that's inevitable," CEO Alex Baldock told reporters after Currys updated on Christmas trading.
"The direction is definitely inflationary. That's one of the contributors to the uncertainty in the outlook because consumers are keeping a close eye on the cost of living at the moment," he said.
Baldock added, however, that Currys would stand by its price promise to be the cheapest in the market.
