Carphone Warehouse is set to close 92 stores, as part of the new chief executive’s programme of cost-saving measures.

After just a couple of months in the top job, Alex Baldock announced plans to decrease the retailers’ store portfolio to help save money and improve gross margins.

Dixons Carphone released its trading update for the 16 week ended 28 April today, which stated profits were likely to fall by 21 per cent in the current year. It also expects headline pre-tax profit for the 2018/2019 financial year to be around £300 million, 21 per cent behind the £382 million forecast for the 12 months ending 28 April.

Baldock warned that store closures were a necessary step as the UK electrical market contracts, with margins impacted in second half of last year largely by category and channel mix.

“Eight weeks in the business have cemented my optimism about Dixons Carphone’s long-term prospects - I’ve found exceptional strengths, and though there’s plenty to fix, it’s all fixable,” he stated.

“We’re number one in each of our markets, with people and capability no competitor can match. Our opportunity lies in making the most of those strengths, which we are nowhere near doing, and we must: nobody is happy with our performance today.”

Baldock said that the company has appointed a new leadership team, cleared away “unnecessary layers and silos” and started to speed up decision-making.

“We’re already giving new impetus to areas crucial to our transformation such as data and analytics, marketing, digital, services and technology,” he commented, adding that areas of underinvestment in colleague and customer experience were being tackled.

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