Dixons Carphone to close 134 stores as it lifts profit guidance after favourable Christmas period

Dixons Carphone is to close 134 stores in the UK as part of a corporate overhaul. On 26 January, the technology retailer also lifted its expectations for full-year profit following a better-than-expected trading period. It reported a 5% sales increase in the 10 weeks to 9 January.

Despite the positive festive season, Dixons Carphone is continuing its overhaul. In a management statement, it said it expects the closures will have a neutral or positive impact on its staff, as the plans are not expected to result in job losses.

Following the much celebrated merger in 2014, the company has pledged to further narrow down the company. After tying up some Dixons Carphone-owned Currys shops with PC World, the company now aims to launch Carphone Warehouse stores in Currys PC World branches.

"It has become clear to us that customers really like our fully refurbished 3-in-1 store concept, and we have decided to launch a major programme to roll this format out across the whole market and put the portfolio into its long-term state," chief executive Seb James said.

"This will involve merging the remaining PC World and Currys stores and inserting a Carphone Warehouse. While this will reduce our store numbers by 134, we have been doing this – on a smaller scale – for some years and are very confident that the impact on sales and colleague numbers will be neutral or better."

James also said the experience so far has shown that shop employees prefer to work in the 3-in-1 stores, which are also favoured by customers. The company said pre-tax profit for the full year is expected to be somewhere between £440m (€575m, $625m) and £450m, ahead of previous forecasts.