Shropshire Carphone Warehouse branches in doubt

Dixons Carphone said it will overhaul all its PC World and Currys stores to relaunch as so-called three-in-one stores, combining PC World, Currys and Carphone Warehouse over the next year and a half.

It will close 134 stores as part of the revamp, but no jobs are thought to be at risk because the retailer is to relocate all staff impacted to nearby superstores.

The company has standalone Carphone Warehouse branches in:

• Pride Hill Retail Park, Shrewsbury

• Meole Brace Retail Park, Shrewsbury

• Telford Shopping Centre

• Forge Retail Park, Telford

• Bailey Street, Oswestry

• Newtown

There are Currys PC World stores at the Meole Brace and Forge retail parks

Dixons Carphone will see its store numbers reduce to 323 in the UK from 402 and to 15 in Ireland from 27, while it is also cutting the number of standalone Carphone Warehouse mobile stores to 684 from 723 in the UK.

It said that despite the closures, it still aims to have the vast majority of the population within 20 minutes' drive of one of its superstores.

Details of the changes came as the group hailed a "strong" performance over Christmas and edged its annual profit outlook higher.

It said UK and Ireland like-for-like sales lifted by five per cent in the 10 weeks to January 9, with the strongest trading day in its history on Black Friday in November and a good start to the clearance sales on Boxing Day.

The group – created following the £3.9 billion merger of Dixons and Carphone Warehouse in the summer of 2014 – now expects to post pre-tax profits of between £440 million and £450 million for the 12 months to May, against £381 million the previous year.

Humphrey Singer, group finance director at Dixons Carphone, said: "We had a fantastic Christmas.

"We had a record Black Friday and our meticulous planning for the period has paid off."

He added the roll-out of the new superstores will be better for staff and customers, following a good response to the 243 superstores it has already launched.

"Customers prefer shopping in these stores and colleagues prefer working in them, he said.