Electronics retailer DSG, which trades in Ireland as Dixons, Currys and PC World, is to create 200 jobs here by Christmas with the opening of six new stores. The company’s Irish operation this morning reported a 30pc increase in sales of €151.1m for the past year.
The company attributed much of its growth to ‘World Cup effect’ with strong sales of flat panel TVs, computer hardware and accessories and MP3 players.
Across the entire DSG Group, 3,000 new jobs are to be created in Ireland, the UK and various European countries, including the Czech Republic, Norway, Poland and Spain.
During the past year three new PC World stores and two Dixons stores opened in Ireland. DSG Ireland general manager Declan Ronayne (pictured)said that the company aims to match, if not increase, the 30pc growth rate and hopes to open six new stores around Ireland by Christmas.
“We are in an advanced stage of negotiations with a number of locations and our objective is to have all of those 200 jobs created on the ground before Christmas,” Ronayne explained.
He told siliconrepublic.com that the flat screen TV market has been very buoyant since last Christmas. “It has reached a tipping point. We no longer sell CRT (cathode ray tube) televisions in Dixons and in Currys we have almost no CRT TVs left. We reached a tipping point and the World Cup was a good boost for that.”
However, Ronayne believes that there’s still a lot more growth in the flat screen TV market. “In Ireland we still have a low penetration of flat panel TV. There’s also strength in the computing market. People are buying into computing or they are upgrading. I think that the uptake of broadband, while still slow, is going to increase with the computing market.
Ronayne said: “MP3 and iPods are still a very good market for us. In terms of the games market, we are still waiting for the new PlayStation3 console which will boost the market when they appear. Another market we have our eyes on is the satellite navigation (SatNav) market, which is starting to take off as the mapping of Ireland improves. We believe our SatNav products will be a good bet for Christmas.”
By John Kennedy
