Irish sales at Dixons and Currys rose by 30 per cent in the year to April, according to their parent DSG International. Like for like sales were up 11 per cent at the Irish arm which also sells computers here under the PC World brand.

DSG indicated in the update that the growth in its Irish electrical sales was concentrated in the second half of the year, which includes Christmas, with overall sales rising by 36 per cent in that period and like-for-like sales rising in the same period by 15 per cent. No figure was put on the value of the sales in yesterday's trading statement but London-listed DSG reported Irish sales of €117.19 million for its three brands in the year to April 2005.

Group wide sales were up 8 per cent and DSG expects to beat most profit forecasts for the year ended April 29th after the stronger second-half performance, which was also led by sales of digital products like MP3s and iPods. The company now expects its underlying annual pretax profit for the year just ended to be £312-£318 million (€454-€463 million) after second-half sales rose a better than predicted 8 per cent, including a 4 per cent like-for-like gain.

DSG's shares have risen 28 per cent in the last six months, helped by Christmas sales, to trade on 15.6 times April 2007 earnings forecasts, compared to 16.8 times for Kesa Electricals, its main UK rival.