A picture of austerity
Dixons group - the UK's dominant electrical retailer - announced its results for the 24 weeks to 16 October this morning. They revealed a significant improvement on the same period last year, but the group still lost £7.9 million for the half-year, including a loss of £10.7 million in the UK and Ireland.
CEO John Browett didn't have much in the way of optimism to offer investors in the short-term either, saying: "We're not expecting to have an easy Christmas," and blaming the impending public sector cuts for general consumer reticence.
On the bright side Browett said tablets and 3D TVs are selling well and, once more, stressed how well the ‘renewal and transformation' plan is going. On the latter topic he was keen to bring attention to the Star Wars ad campaign, which is designed to bring attention to the PC World/Currys megastores the group has been rolling out across the UK - see below.
Other notable developments were the growing presence of Phones 4U concessions within his stores - there are already 51 and that's set to double - and the impending launch of KnowHow; yet another tech support service. The latter development came with the admission that TechGuys is a bit too "geeky" for regular punters, so it's not clear what fate awaits the latter brand.
