DSG International reports fall in sales

DSG International reports fall in sales

	Published : Wed, 23 Nov 2005 14:05 By : Amy Watts Print this Story

LONDON: DSG International Plc., Britain's largest electronics retailer, said its underlying sales for the first half had fallen, but in line with market expectations. It, however, said it is confident of its prospects for the Christmas season in spite of the general downward trend in the retail sector.

The company, formerly Dixons Group Plc., before it acquired a pan-European image, said its like-for-like sales fell by 3 per cent during the 28 weeks ended 12 November. However, total sales went up 4 per cent, compared with a growth of 4 per cent for the earlier 16-week period.

The company's chief executive John Clare said the overall level of trading in the group remained broadly unchanged from that reported in September. He said its international operations in aggregate continued to perform well, especially businesses in the Nordic countries, Greece, Italy and Ireland.

Though cautious of the existing trading conditions in the U.K., he said the company is well prepared, its ranges and deals are strong and it is fully focused on meeting the needs of its customers during the forthcoming Christmas season.

Like-for-like sales for the company's electricals division -- Dixons and Currys in the U.K., Elkjop in Scandinavia, UniEuro in Italy, Kotsovolos in Greece, the Ireland business, and Electro World in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland -- went up 1 per cent, while total sales went up 8 per cent.

Like-for-like sales in the computing and communications division -- consisting of PC World, PC City and The Link Communications Group (40 per cent-owned by O2 Plc.) -- were down 12 per cent, and total sales down 3 per cent.

In the U.K., retail total sales were down 4 per cent and like-for-like sales 7 per cent, while in international retail total sales were up 24 per cent and like-for-like sales were up 4 per cent.

Both at Dixons and Currys, like-for-likes were down 2 per cent and 3 percent respectively. Similarly, like-for-like sales at The Link mobile telephone shops fell 28 per cent, mostly because of growing direct sales by network operators and cheap competition from supermarkets.

DSG is trying to maintain profits by cutting costs particularly in computers and mobile phones which offer higher profit margins than some of the group's other products.