DSG international has announced plans to shave a further £20m from its cost base in its fiscal 2009 as it warned that like-for-like sales will continue to fall this year.

In an interim management statement, the electricals giant revealed that like-for-like group sales plunged 10 per cent in the 12 weeks ended 10 January.

In the UK and Ireland, total electricals sales fell 8 per cent while computing sales dropped back 12 per cent.

Savings targeted for the year to April 2009 now stand at £95m.

John Browett , chief executive of DSGi, said: “We expect 2009 to be challenging across most of our markets and are actively planning and managing the business for negative like for likes.”

However, it was not all doom and gloom as DSGi revealed that like-for-like sales for the two-week period to 10 January were up 2 per cent with UK computing sales remaining resilient.

Browett also claimed that the retailer’s new large format stores were exceeding expectations.

“The sales pattern through the period was as we anticipated with customers waiting for the post Christmas sales to purchase discretionary products, particularly televisions and laptops,” he explained.

The statement comes just days after DSGi was dealt a blow by credit insurance giant Euler Hermes, which reduced the giant’s cover last week.