Carphone Warehouse Irish unit in the red ahead of merger

Group’s Irish subsidiary recorded pretax loss in run-up to deal to merge with Dixons

Dixons Carphone, which announced a ‘merger of equals’ with Dixons last May, said it was to close 12 Irish stores earlier this year as it moved to merge its core brands, which also include PC World and Currys

Carphone Warehouse Ltd, the Irish arm of the European-wide retail group that merged with Dixons last year, saw profits sharply decline in the 12 months running up to the deal with the electrical goods retailer.

Newly-filed accounts show the subsidiary recorded a pretax loss of €2.5 million for the year to May 2nd, 2015. This comes after the company turned a €10 million loss in 2013 into a €2.1 million profit in 2014.

Turnover rose by just over 3 per cent from €120 million to €124 million with the group reporting an operating loss of €1.8 million versus an operating profit of€2.7 million a year earlier.

The shareholders’ surplus amounted to €6.7 million at the end of May, compared to €9.2 million for the preceding year.

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The group, which employed 686 people, reported staff costs of €18 million last year as against €16 million in 2014. Directors’ remuneration rose from €212,775 to €320,631.

Dixons Carphone, which announced a 'merger of equals' with Dixons last May, said it was to close 12 Irish stores earlier this year as it moved to merge its core brands, which also include PC World and Currys.

The last available accounts for DSG Retail Ireland Ltd, the company behind Currys and PC World prior to the deal with Carphone Warehouse, showed the group’s Irish losses widened by €1 million in the year ahead of the £3.8 billion (€4.7m) merger.

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor

Charlie Taylor is a former Irish Times business journalist