Dixons Carphone's sales rise as it enjoys best ever Black Friday

Retailer says it managed to maintain margins during festive period

Claims that Black Friday could be on the wane would appear to have been overstated, at least if Dixons Carphone's latest trading update is anything to go by.

In a Christmas trading update, the electricals retail giant said its sales for the 10 weeks ending on 7 January 2017 were up eight per cent year on year as it enjoyed its "biggest ever" Black Friday across the group.

In the UK, the annual bonanza - which marks the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping period - stretched further across the week, Dixons Carphone's chief executive Sebastian James reported.

And despite recent claims that no-one actually makes money from the binge event - which last year fell on 25 November - neither did it trash the London-listed firm's bottom line, James added.

"This year, as a result of our scale in all of our markets, we were able to offer prices that were truly ground-breaking during both our Black Friday week and our annual Boxing Day week sales - while maintaining margins - and we believe that we have outperformed the market during the period," he said.

UK & Ireland sales rose four per cent during the period, and clambered six per cent on a like for like basis.

Nordic sales rose 15 per cent in pounds and one per cent in local currencies, while sales from southern Europe rose 24 and six per cent on the same basis.

"Patchy availability" of larger, higher-margin phones hampered Dixons Carphone's sales in this area during the period, but James said this offers up opportunities for its next fiscal year as these issues evaporate.

James - who took to Twitter to toast the results (see above) was optimistic for Dixons Carphone's full-year results its year ending 30 April 2017.

"As a result [of Dixons Carphone outperforming the market], and despite the fact that there is quite a bit of the year to go, we anticipate a meaningful uplift in year-on-year profitability this year over last and confirm our outlook in line with market consensus at £475m-£495m of headline profit before tax for the year ending 29 April 2017," he said.