Carphone Warehouse 2015 Annual Report Download - page 6

Dixons Carphone plc Annual Report and Accounts 2014/15
Strategic report
Chairman’s Statement
4
I am pleased to be reporting on a very encouraging first year
since the merger of Carphone Warehouse and Dixons Retail.
We have had a strong start, with pro forma Headline profit
before tax rising 21% to £381 million. Progress has been good
across the board and in virtually all territories, with excellent
market share gains in all core countries in all key categories,
and record customer satisfaction numbers. Some important
strategic goals have also been achieved, most notably the
disposals of non-core operations in France, Germany, the
Netherlands and Portugal. In addition, it is good to see real
traction with some key new clients in our Connected World
Services business including our agreement with Sprint. In
short, it has been a good year and the Board is pleased to
recommend a final dividend of 6.0p per share to be paid on
25 September 2015.
At the same time, the team have made really good progress in
bringing our two great companies together. Much has been
achieved on this vital journey and, in particular, It gives me
enormous pleasure to see so many fully-functioning Carphone
Warehouse stores doing so well inside CurrysPCWorld stores
up and down the country. I believe that the team are doing
something that is both hard to do and relatively rare: creating
a genuine merger of equals where the best parts of each
company are preserved.
While this is very encouraging so far, I am also aware that
getting this right is not optional. We brought the businesses
together because we believed that increasingly interconnected
customers were going to require something new from us: a
powerful partner to help them navigate these new technologies.
Over the last year we have started to think about our customer
needs very hard and how we will address them going forward
– not only through the products that we offer, but also through
the services that we believe will bring these products to life.
This is a long-term strategy but I am convinced that it will
bear fruit in the end and it is exciting to be at the forefront
of these developments.
In recent years we have experienced unprecedented changes
in our marketplace, and this year is not shaping up to be an
exception. There is no doubt that technology is evolving,
consumer behaviour is shifting, the supplier landscape is
changing and, of course, in the telecommunications world, that
there are a number of important M&A transactions pending.
We believe that change creates opportunity for us as
consumers turn more and more to those who can offer
genuine impartial advice and service at very competitive prices,
and as suppliers rely more and more on us to tell their stories
fairly and well to their customers. It is our job to make
customers' lives better through technology, and, if we are
successful, this will lead to continued growth and success for
Dixons Carphone.
Finally, I am conscious that all we have achieved – and all of
our future – is down to the skills and commitment of our
people. On behalf of the Board and our shareholders, I would
like to thank them for their hard work and dedication.
Sir Charles Dunstone
Chairman
16 July 2015