Half Year 2022 Currys PLC Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Simon Bowler - Numis Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : I was wondering if we could just kind of touch on the Nordic market, actually, a little bit, if that would be okay. Just in terms of the kind of gross margins have fallen a reasonable amount year-on-year, but channel shift doesn't look to have actually kind of stepped up sequentially much

Question: Simon Bowler - Numis Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. And those kind of supply chain costs in the Nordics are more pronounced than they are in the U.K.? Because obviously the U.K. hasn't kind of seen that same shape of gross margin.

Question: Simon Bowler - Numis Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. Okay. And then, if I can just quickly touch on the mobile part of the business. I may have got this wrong, it looks like kind of sales were down kind of 20%, 25% year-on-year, which is actually kind of a bit ahead of where I thought we were going to land, this year at least. Are you kind of still on track for kind of divisional losses? You maybe don't report it that way, of somewhere either side of kind of GBP 50 million and then break even into next year? Is that still the way that you're thinking about that part of the business? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 15, 2021 / 9:00AM, CURY.L - Half Year 2022 Currys PLC Earnings Call

Question: Adam Stuart Tomlinson - Liberum Capital Limited, Research Division - Analyst : Three questions, if I can. Just in terms of current trading, can you maybe just talk a little bit more about the relative performance of stores? And linked to that, just where you're -- in terms of delivery times for those ordering online, where those sit at the moment versus where you'd like to be? And if those are extended, I guess you've got the benefit of customers can come in and click-and-collect from your 300 or so stores. So, just around that relative performance there would be helpful. Second question, just on stock levels. You mentioned being 15% higher year-on-year. Maybe just a bit of color around the profile of that stock. So, I appreciate there's some availability issues with some of the more in-demand categories, so just how you're holding up there and that stock profile. And then thirdly, around the customers for life. You mentioned some stats and more color you can give around that post the focus you gave on at the Capital Markets Day. So, that would be helpful as well, please.

Question: Simon Bowler - Numis Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : A couple of follow-ups. The first one is, maybe, thinking on sort of (inaudible) through January 1, just in terms of that kind of softening demand. Is that just a U.K. phenomenon? Or are you kind of talking across each of your markets? And is there any color that you can offer in terms of category trends within that?

Question: Simon Bowler - Numis Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. Great. And then 2 other kind of slightly more modeling based ones. One, the network debt, there wasn't too much kind of further inflow from that in the first half of this year. Should we be expecting that to step up in the second half and beyond? Or do you expect it kind of stabilize around current levels, given your ongoing mobile business?

Question: Simon Bowler - Numis Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : And is that then true thereafter? Is it kind of a run rate level of that network, if that's the case?

Question: Simon Bowler - Numis Securities Limited, Research Division - Analyst : Okay. Understood. And then final one, sorry, which is, of the GBP 300 million cost savings that you had set out, which were off, I believe, the fiscal 2021 base, how much of that falls into this fiscal year? Obviously, GBP 25 million from the goods not for resale, but in terms of the other elements of that, how much of that in this year's base, of that gross GBP 300 million?

Question: John Guy - Jefferies Financial Group Inc. - Analyst : Alex, you mentioned you've got 15% more stock. Could you maybe elaborate or break out where you have more stock? Is it in videogaming, TVs, white goods? Could you just be a little bit more specific in terms of where the stock is highest? And if you've seen any change in consumer replacement cycles, say, from this year compared to 2019? That's my first question. And I've got a follow-up, please.

Question: John Guy - Jefferies Financial Group Inc. - Analyst : Great. And you haven't seen any change in the way the consumers are looking to replace product that -- that replacement cycle time frame really hasn't changed much over the course of the last 2 years?

Question: John Guy - Jefferies Financial Group Inc. - Analyst : Great. And if I could have one follow-up, actually, please. Just on how much now of your sales are being driven by credit. Has there been any big change compared to 2019? Maybe that's one for Bruce. And also, can you disclose what percentage of warranties are now as a percentage of sales in the first half of this year compared to 2019?

Question: Edward Blair - Liberum Capital Limited - Analyst : The question has already been asked, actually; it was about the skewing of products, whether there had been any material skewing of products. But as you said, it will be something you'll address in January. So, the question has already been asked. Thank you.

Question: Kartik Kumar - Artemis Investment Management LLP - Analyst : I was just wondering if you could comment on the Nordics profitability a bit further. The part I don't quite understand is, to what extent is -- are the investments in the systems, et cetera, bringing down profitability? And overall, was that performance in line with your internal expectations?

Question: Kartik Kumar - Artemis Investment Management LLP - Analyst : Yes, just about the Nordics. I'm just saying, in the Nordics, it looks like there were some external factors hitting gross margin. And then internal, effectively investments that hit OpEx. And so, I was just wondering if you could comment on that and how overall it compared to your own expectations.