Dixons sees 5% Christmas sales drop

By Neal Wallace

Dixons Retail, the owner of Currys and PC World, has reported a sales drop over the Christmas period.

The group said in a trading update that like-for-like sales fell five per cent in the 12 weeks to the 7th January, which was a better performance than analysts had predicted.

John Browett, chief executive of Dixons, said that the results represented a "solid performance", with consumer confidence still fragile. He added that this year would see the organisation take a "cautious approach".

Analyst at Seymour Pierce Freddie George called Dixons the "last man standing", adding that the company would benefit when consumer confidence returns.

The retailer, which also runs Elkjop in Nordic countries, UniEuro in Italy and Kotsovolos in Greece, has said margins across the group as a whole were flat year-on-year.

Christmas 2011 was a difficult period for a number of firms, with shares in Tesco dropping massively after the company reported a poor festive period.