Shares digital

‘Profit warnings, they say, come in three but it is not often that they all arrive within six months,’ says the Guardian’s Nils Pratley about the recent profit warning from DSG International. He questions whether DSG can ‘muddle through and emerge as a leaner business more suited for an era where consumers go to the internet, rather than the shops, to find the price of a fridge, flat-panel telly or digital camera’, but says that it is hard to ‘find ground for optimism’. He concludes that ‘DSG is doing nicely on the net, but the implication is that it has too many stores.’

Meanwhile, Damian Reece from The Telegraph highlights the confusion that DSG’s branding has created. ‘First it was called Dixons Group, with Dixons stores on the high street. Then it was called DSG International, with Dixons stores on the high street. Now it is called DSG International without Dixons stores on the high street but with Dixons on the internet and Currys.digital on the high street.’ This confusion, according to Reece, has also spread to chief executive John Browett, who took on the role in December and who ‘hasn’t been able to make sense of it either’.

In Reece’s opinion, a lot of DSG’s problems are self made and have their roots in the ‘alphabet spaghetti’ introduced two years ago. ‘Back then, the consumer boom was nearing its peak, with DSG shares reaching 220p in the October.’ Reece acknowledges there may be ‘no quick fix’ for the company, and argues that simplification has to be the priority, adding: ‘Sadly, I am not sure simplification and management consultants go together.’