Currys has reported a droop in Christmas gross sales, with the soccer World Cup even failing to bolster demand for TVs.
The electricals retailer mentioned the price of dwelling disaster meant conventional favourites have been out of favour as customers hunted power environment friendly home equipment as an alternative.
Like-for-like gross sales within the UK and Eire fell 5% within the 10 weeks to 7 January in comparison with the identical interval in 2021/22.
Currys mentioned the decline partly mirrored excessive ranges of gross sales seen over the past two pandemic-hit years.
Chief govt Alex Baldock informed reporters: “It hasn’t been a bumper peak buying and selling season for expertise retail, for instance the computing and the TV markets have been in fairly a difficult house.
“In contrast we did effectively in (home) home equipment and in cell,” he mentioned, highlighting significantly sturdy demand for power environment friendly home equipment.
Please use Chrome browser for a extra accessible video participant
Alex Baldock explains how a document quantity – almost a fifth – of gross sales have been on credit score
He mentioned gross sales of air fryers have been up 500% year-on-year, whereas microwave gross sales have been up 30%.
Gross sales of warmth pump tumble dryers and power environment friendly washing machines have been additionally sturdy.
Currys stored its monetary steering for the complete 12 months – sustaining a lower to the revenue outlook for the complete 12 months to April that was imposed final month after a loss-making first half.
That was blamed on weak gross sales in a heavily-discounted Nordics market.
The corporate admitted the abroad enterprise had suffered an additional deterioration over the festive season, with gross sales 10% down.
Shares rose 8% in early offers, reflecting aid that the revenue steering was unchanged.
Currys mentioned it nonetheless anticipated to ship 2022-23 adjusted revenue earlier than tax of between £100m-£125m – down from the £186m achieved in 2021-22.