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DSGi annual profits fall by 77 percent

by Scott Bicheno on 25 June 2009, 10:25

Tags: PC World (LON:DXNS), DSG International (LON:DXNS)

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Toughing it out

The 2008/9 financial results for DSGi - the UK's biggest technology retail group - were never going to make pretty reading as the global recession and its own reorganisation took their toll.

The group managed an underlying pre-tax profit of £50.5 million, which was 77.6 percent down on the 2007/8 figure, but still above market expectations.

That profit was wiped out, however, by charges totalling £190.9 million resulting from its restructuring programme, creating an annual loss of £140.4 million. This still compares favourably to a loss of £184.1 million in the previous accounting year.

"We are improving the business for our customers. We are providing better service in store, selling complete solutions, delivering at more convenient times and improving our technical and after sales service. We are well positioned to emerge from the recession with a compelling offer for customers," said CEO John Browett.

Sales in the UK and Ireland were down 11 percent year-on-year. In its UK Computing division, which is comprised of PC World, DSGi Business and TechGuys, total sales were down 14 percent. Weak consumer demand was blamed.

DSGi expects the difficult trading conditions to continue for the rest of the year, but thinks it's well positioned to tough it out.

 



HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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We are improving the business for our customers. We are providing better service in store, selling complete solutions, delivering at more convenient times and improving our technical and after sales service. We are well positioned to emerge from the recession with a compelling offer for customers," said CEO John Browett. We are still really expensive!

If some of the prices dropped to be a little more competitive i would definately use them more often for convenience.
I can't feel sorry for DSG. Many of their problems are self inflicted by their management. A failure to understand that many customer have serious doubts about the training of and service levels achieved by their Tech Guys operation is one of the major problems. Many online forums will confirm this. Couple this with quite unrealistic pricing and lack of sales where customers realise they are being misinformed and do not return, except to windowshop, leads to significant failure to attract new custom or retain existing customers.

Someone at DSG needs to have a good look at how some of the opposition works. Time and again John Lewis, whilst not often the cheapest, gets the customer satisfied with the shopping experience. On line customers value good operators like Scan and Novatech I give the DSG another 18 months to learn these lessons properly or be forced to give up most of their operations
I just wish you could walk into a PC world store without being assulted by 3 or 4 sales assistants with in 2 minutes. If I need help I'll ask.

Also If when asking about a product you've seen on their website (a laptop) - they could actually find it rather than sell you for £200 more.

If they sorted that out then I might start spending my money there (and recommending them).
cheesemp
I just wish you could walk into a PC world store without being assulted by 3 or 4 sales assistants with in 2 minutes. If I need help I'll ask.

Also If when asking about a product you've seen on their website (a laptop) - they could actually find it rather than sell you for £200 more.

If they sorted that out then I might start spending my money there (and recommending them).

Thats another good point, its happened to me 4 or 5 times where i've seen something available for store collect, visited the store and the item has not been available at the price listed.
don't know what the rest of them are like, but the Blackpool pcworld seems to have less on the shelves every time i go