Analysis: Dixons boss Sebastian James on the electricals retailer's 'weird' Christmas

Dixons chief executive Sebastian James on….

Christmas trading in the UK and Ireland:

“It was a bit of a weird Christmas, the patterns were very unusual. Black Friday was very big for us as some customers chose to buy Christmas gifts then it was quiet after that. There was some scuffling in the market, particularly in the tablet end, then a few days before Christmas it took off like a rocket. Boxing Day was wild and great fun.”

The tablet market:

“There are two segments to the tablet market – the really serious end with the iPads etc, then the more cheap and cheerful market with the 7 inch tablets. It was this bottom end where we saw the scuffling – some people realised they had a lot of stock in the supply chain so there were a lot of deals around.”

Black Friday:

“The four day weekend with Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw sales very much higher than normal. We expect it to become the third biggest event after Christmas and Easter. This year we’ll be planning for a full Turkey celebration for Black Friday. We love promotions as long as they’re planned. We work with suppliers well in advance for big promotional events and will do more of that for this year.”

Margins:

“Our margin has been slightly lower over the most recent period but with higher profitability and we like it that way. We must be competitive with everyone and run good promotions. We are the cheapest on the high street and very competitive with online players.”

Footfall:

“Footfall was down slightly in the run up to Christmas but our like-for-likes up. We like this trend. Three and a half years ago we did a survey and our customers told us on average they made four visits to our stores before making a purchase. These are big purchases. Now one of those visits has been replaced by online and we like that because it means we can spend more quality time with them in stores making sure they make the right purchase.”

Forward-looking trading:

“We are planning cautiously, as if there won’t be a recovery. If there is great, and we’ll be ready for it, but we need to be cautious. Trading in our fourth quarter will go against some great comparables, and also Easter is later. We like Easter to be wet and miserable as more people are likely to come into our stores, rather than when it’s hot they go into garden centres. And this year Easter is later so it is more likely to be warmer. That can make a big difference to our fourth quarter.”