Mobile phone group Carphone Warehouse raises guidance for full year on first half progress
CARPHONE Warehouse, which employs more than 1,000 staff at its TalkTalk operation in Warrington, today flagged up improved prospects for the financial year after better than expected customer growth in the first half.
Excluding its Tiscali acquisition it added 124,000 new customers in the six months to September 30, prompting it to raise guidance for the full year.
Carphone’s pre-tax profits came in 88% up at £75m. Revenues were £789m compared with £697m.
Revenues at TalkTalk were up 15% overall to £631m, as the broadband growth came despite a difficult consumer climate and offset declines in voice-only and internet dial-up users.
The company, which paid £235m for Tiscali’s UK business earlier this year, expects to find up to £50m in cost savings from the deal.
Carphone’s retail arm – a 50-50 joint venture with US consumer giant Best Buy - also traded well during the period, the company said.
Despite tough comparisons with the previous year due to the launch of the 3G iPhone in July 2008 – mobile connections rose 2% to 5.9m.
While the handset market remained “subdued”, the group – which has 2,459 stores – said it continued to gain share in high-value smartphones across several European markets.
The division is planning to open its first major Best Buy branded stores in the spring of 2010, with further launches in the second half of next year.
Carphone said the demerger of its TalkTalk division was “well on track” for March 2010, leaving the remaining Carphone Warehouse group with the 50% Best Buy Europe share as well as its 48.5% stake in Virgin Mobile France.
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