Poor Christmas Trading at Currys

The owner of Currys and PC World has issued a profits warning after poor Christmas sales. It said that like for like sales fell 1% but computer sales fell 11% in the 11 weeks to December 29th 2007

The shares in its parent company DSG fell 20% after they said that profits could be up to £50million below market expectations. It stated that it had no plans to close any of its high street stores.

It said that online sales at dixons.co.uk and fotovista were up some 31% but there had been a lower demand for laptops and the profit margins previously enjoyed were much lower. Normally DSG generates over half of its annual profits during the Christmas build up.

Anaylists were unsure whether this poor trading performance is company specific or will affect others when they report their Christmas trading. Certainly some shopping centres were virtually empty in the days leading up to Christmas but have been more busy since the sales started with sales prices much lower this year as some retailers hope to boost their ailing profits in the new year.

Next PLC has also reported a drop in sales of 3.2% between July 30th and December 24th and is cautious for the year ahead. It said it had not discounted its products in the run up to Christmas like some other retailers but its semi annual clearance was going to expectations.