Retail and telecoms businesses to split as the firm reiterates plans to open Best Buy stores in the UK by next spring

Carphone confirms demerger by July 2010

Carphone Warehouse saw its revenues for the year fall £30m to £1.39bn, at the same time revealing that it expects the demerger of its telecoms and retail businesses will be complete by July 2010.

In a statement released to the City, group CEO Charles Dunstone said that the two divisions had increasingly grown apart from each other and that there are no longer synergies between them.

The two divisions saw mixed results, with the retail arm performing very well – up 15 per cent – while the telecoms division saw revenues fall two per cent.

"Our retail business has again out-performed its marketplace, increasing connections in a year when we estimate the European handset market fell and thereby significantly increasing its market share albeit with an investment in margin," commented Dunstone.

He also praised the efforts of TalkTalk: "Our telecoms business has also performed well: growing its total broadband customer base; continuing the migration of its customers onto its leading edge, fully unbundled network; and markedly improving customer loyalty.

"This has significantly increased the value of its customer base and, at the same time, the investments we have made are paying off with increasing profitability and increasing operating free cash flows.

On the subject of Best Buy, Dunstone repeated Carphone Warehouse’s earlier statement that it would be opening the first big box store in spring 2010.

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