Carphone trading ahead of hopes
British telecoms retailer Carphone Warehouse delivered a positive update on trading today after the number of connections in its second quarter rose 25%.
The company, which has more than 1,300 retail outlets, described business over the last six months as ahead of expectations and said it would post half-year profits of at least £27m (€39m) – up from £20.3m (€29.4m) a year earlier.
The figure takes into account significant costs promoting home phone venture TalkTalk, including through sponsorship of Channel Four’s Big Brother.
TalkTalk added 137,000 customers in the three months to September 25, taking its UK base to 648,000 at the end of September.
The venture has traded profitably in the last two months but Carphone said the marketing costs will result in half-year losses of £6m (€8.7m) at TalkTalk.
Overall, total connections grew by 25% on a year earlier to 1.55 million in the second quarter, with subscription connections increasing 18% to 690,000.
Chief executive Charles Dunstone said: “All of our core businesses continue to perform well and trading over the first half has been ahead of expectations.
“The mobile market remains buoyant and we have achieved further good growth in both subscription and pre-pay connections.”
