Electricals retailer DSGi said full-year pretax profit may be up to £50 million below expectations due to weaker trading and a more cautious outlook for the year remaining.

For the eleven weeks to 29 December, total group sales were up 5%. However, like-for-like sales declined by 1% reflecting 'generally weaker consumer environments' across the group's markets.

Shares reacted angrily to the news, off 24p, or 22%, at 83.3 pence.

'Overall trading for this important period, in which over half our annual profits are usually generated, has been disappointing, particularly in the UK, Italy and Spain,' said group chairman John Collins.

Finance director Kevin O'Byrne said analysts' expectations for pretax profit for the year to end April 2008 had ranged between £290 - 300 million.

O'Byrne said about £30 million of the full-year profit impact came as a result of the poor Christmas trading - incorporating a £15 million hit from PC World, £10 million at Currys, and £5 million from the Southern European electricals business.

In the electricals division, total sales were up 6% with like-for-like sales down 1%.

Computing division like-for-like sales declined by 11% with total sales down 5%.

Group like-for-like gross margin was down 0.3% driven by promotional activity.

DSGi said Currys saw stronger demand in the post Christmas sales period driven by promotions around flat panel televisions, laptops and digital imaging, negatively impacting gross margin for the period.

The group described sales at PC World as 'very disappointing' with lower demand for laptops in the pre-Christmas gifting period, but good demand for games consoles and digital photo frames.