Carphone meets profits goal
TELECOMS and mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse met its profits goal today and said the demerger of its North West-based broadband and fixed line business Talk Talk would be completed by July 2010.
Carphone, which employs 1,200 people in Warrington, where its business broadband division Opal Telecom is also based, saw bottom line profits leap from £4m to £133m on turnover down a fraction at £1.38bn against £1.4bn last year.
Net income rose to £550m from £73m last time
The group has two units, the Best Buy Europe division, a retail and distribution business operated in a venture with American giant Best Buy Co and the TalkTalk business for broadband and fixed-line services.
Chief executive Charles Dunstone hailed a year of progress, stating: “This has been a year of significant achievement, reflecting incredible energy, commitment and effectiveness from all our employees.
“Against a difficult economic backcloth, we have delivered strong results and we have considerably strengthened both our market position and our financial position.
” We have also restructured the Group, enabling us to operate more efficiently than ever before, and we have taken key strategic steps to drive our future growth and returns for shareholders.”
Carphone plans to split the two business units into two separately listed companies. It will also be Britain’s biggest provider of residential broadband when it completes a £236m purchase of Tiscali UK announced last month.
