Carphone Warehouse to close 134 stores as Dixons Carphone merger success continues
More than 130 standalone Carphone Warehouse stores are to be closed, as the business continues to merge its retail arms.
Parent company Dixons Carphone said it had decided to roll its three-in-one store format, which includes PC World and Currys alongside the phone specialist, out across the whole UK and Ireland market having received a big thumbs up from customers from its trial phase. That will result in 134 stores being closed.
The move, which comes as Dixons Carphone reveals better-than-expected results for the Christmas period, is not expected to result in any job losses.
"Ahile 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," the firm said.
"In addition, our experience shows that that colleagues prefer working in – and customers prefer shopping in – our new three-in-one format stores."
Dixons Carphone will invest around £50m in the portfolio rejig, with a further £70m for property exit costs and other fees.
"Given that the programme will be implemented during full year 2016/17, we anticipate that the benefit to FY 2016/17 earnings will be modest, but thereafter this activity will contribute approximately £20m of incremental annual earnings from recurring costs savings," the company added.