DSG International Results Down

Electrical retailing giant DSG International which owns and operates PC World and Currys has today announced a significant decrease in profits over the first six months of its financial year to October, off the back of slowing sales in its latop and personal computer products.

The group today admitted that an overstocking problem was behind its downturn in performance which saw it ordering in far more units than it could sell, and has contributed significantly to the slowdown in profitability over the period.

The retail group, which also operates Italian firm UniEuro announced that its profits before tax for the period had fallen from over £70 million down to just £52 million, as a result of falling sales and the aforementioned problem with stocking throughout its pan-European operations.

However some consolation was derived from the company’s improved sales of flat screen TVs, which improved by between 3% and 6% throughout its various European sales regions and helped in part to offset the problems associated with its laptop sales.

Additionally it is hoped that the Christmas period and post-festive sales results, not factored in to today’s performance, would help to turn around fortunes at the group for the second half of its financial year.

Speaking today on the situation, the firm said that whilst it was disappointing to see a fall in results, there may be further underlying economic reasons for the slowdown in sales of electrical goods to consumers, such as the summer credit crunch and rising interest rates to tackle inflation, as well as ongoing uncertainty about the future of global financial markets.

Nevertheless it remains to be seen whether DSG will be able to turn around performance over the second half of the year into 2008, with a view to improving underlying profitability at the end of the day.

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