Treading water
DSGi, the owner of PC world and soon to be renamed Dixons Retail, has released a trading update for the 12 weeks ending 24 July, revealing total group like-for-like sales were up three percent from the same period a year ago.
While it's obviously good that sales have risen, like-for-like sales fell seven percent a year ago so, especially if you consider inflation of three percent, DSGi - sorry, Dixons - has at best trodden water this spring.
"This is an encouraging start to the year, especially given the challenging market conditions," said chief exec John Browett. "Our UK businesses performed particularly well, most notably with customers responding to our strong World Cup promotion and the excellent product ranges on offer.
"The store transformation programme is making rapid progress and continues to improve the shopping trip for customers. Our international businesses have also performed well against competitors in varied market conditions.
"We remain cautious about the economic outlook but we will continue to deliver on our Renewal and Transformation plan to make the business Better, Easier and Cheaper to run and deliver an unbeatable combination of Value, Choice and Service for customers."
Of course Dixons is not only having to deal with at best a weak market recovery, but aggressive competition from a major new player in electronics retailing - Best Buy. This will have diluted any benefit from World Cup related TV sales and as for its claimed iPad exclusivity, we're not convinced.
One move revealed in the trading statement is a retail partnership with Phones4U, with 50 in-store concessions to be open in time for Christmas. Given that Best Buy is a joint venture with Carphone Warehouse this is, in hindsight, an inevitable move by the two retailers on the basis that my enemy's enemy is my friend.
