Carphone Warehouse to close stores

The Carphone Warehouse in the Rochdale Exchange

Carphone Warehouse has become the latest retailer to be affected by the High Street crisis and is to close 92 of its 1,100 stores across the UK, but it is not yet known if the Rochdale store will be one of those affected.

The shops will close over the next year, but details of stores affected stores have not been announced by Dixons, who say no jobs will be lost as staff will be offered the chance to transfer to alternative stores.

On Tuesday (29 May), the Group Chief Executive of Dixons Carphone, Alex Baldock, issued a profits warning and vowed to take action in the face of the changing mobile phone market.

He said: “We won’t tolerate our current performance in mobile, or as a group. We know we can do a lot better.”

The warning came as the company, Europe's leading specialist electrical and telecommunications retailer and services company, confirmed profits would crash by 24% in the year to April 2018, from £501m to £382m.

The company has blamed the profit margin squeeze on a smaller market for electrical goods, increases in the legal minimum wage, plus increases in the costs of sourcing goods overseas.

More consumers are keeping their phones for longer and requiring ‘sim-only’ deals, a move which has affected the retailer’s performance.