Strong performance from Carphone Warehouse
Carphone Warehouse has reported strong results for the Christmas period with like-for-like sales increasing 7.3% in the three months to December 30 and group revenues up almost 32%.
During that time, like-for-like retail profits rose 3%, while overall sales jumped 19% to £623m. The like-for-like figures discount the impact of sales from new stores.
Carphone chief executive Charles Dunstone says: "Delivering profitable like-for-like growth after last year’s very strong performance is a great achievement."
The company is now the country’s third-largest broadband provider with 2.2 million users after buying AOL’s UK business.
Its own TalkTalk broadband arm has signed up 632,000 subscribers, of which 540,000 have now been connected. The company initially struggled to cope with the huge demand for the "free" broadband service but it claims to be making progress in clearing the backlog.