Self-help boosts Dixons

Chief executive Sebastian James says it's "comforting" to see the business making money all year round now. He's also looking forward to peak UK Christmas trading, which should prove lucrative given the retailer's 23 per cent share of the electricals market. This Christmas, Mr James says baking equipment is flying off the shelves, while 15 headphones are being sold every minute.

Indeed, it was the UK and Irish business which helped the group's underlying pre-tax profit to more than double to £30.2m and boosted group like-for-like sales by 6 per cent. The division saw underlying sales rise 9 per cent to £1.9bn, while profit swelled more than fivefold to £31.4m, reflecting various self-help initiatives. Price investment, for instance, means Dixons is now as cheap, and often cheaper, than Amazon. "It's a constant battle," explains Mr James. "Like your weight, you have to keep fighting it down." An in-store repair service, KnowHow, and tutorials on using products, are also boosting revenue. Dixons' scale means it now has the clout to seal exclusive deals with suppliers, too.

Elsewhere, the Nordic region grew underlying sales 3 per cent, although profit there fell 6 per cent to £45.5m. KnowHow was introduced here and was well received - it doubled sales of value-added services. In fact, Greece was the only weak point - sales there fell 14 per cent, leading to an underlying loss of £5.8m. However, Mr James says the business is "on strategy". Dixons has also sold, or agreed to sell, three of its problem operations - Electroworld in Turkey, Unieuro in Italy and PIXmania in France.

Broker Investec Securities expects adjusted full-year pre-tax profit of £164.4m, giving adjusted EPS of 2.9p (from £94.5m and 1.7p in 2013), rising to 3.6p in 2015.