Dixons Carphone FY slumps; warns of big fall this year

Electricals and mobile phone retailer Dixons Carphone reported a slump in full year profits and warned of further falls in the current trading year.

The owner of Carphone Warehouse, Currys and PC World said it expected its mobile phone division to be “significantly loss making this year”.

Dixons has been hit as cautious consumers change handsets less frequently and move away from costly 24 month contracts towards more flexible deals.

Pretax profits fell to £298m from £382m and compared to company guidance of £300m. On a statutory basis Dixons Carphone reported a loss before tax of £259m against a profit of £289m in the previous 12 months.

It said underlying pretax profit was expected to be around £210m in 2019-20, with growth thereafter as the benefits of its turnaround plan feed through.

The company also took a £20m hit from a data leak last year.

“We expect mobile will at least break even within two years, and beyond that, equipped with a stronger and unconstrained offer, we will of course aim to do better. In any case, cash generation from mobile will be strong,” said chief executive Alex Baldock.