Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) is to cut hundreds of jobs in management as it presses on with the integration of Argos, which it bought for £1.4bn in 2016. In a letter to staff, the supermarket chain’s chief executive, Mike Coupe, said the company’s leadership team had already been reduced by 20% since the beginning of the financial year in March 2019. Coupe said the structural reorganisation would ultimately lead to hundreds of job cuts, part of a plan to save £500m in costs by 2024.
Dixons Carphone (DC.) has suffered a further slump in mobile sales but benefited from a surge in sales of supersize TVs and Dyson hairdryers. The company, which owns the Carphone Warehouse and Currys PC World chains, posted a 9% fall in like-for-like mobile phone sales in the UK and Ireland in the 10 weeks to 4 January but that decline was offset by a 2% rise in electricals sales – better than expected – and overall group sales were flat. Mobile sales had been even worse in the first half of the year, down 18% at established stores.
easyJet (EZJ) said it was on course for a strong winter, after reporting a leap in revenues for the last quarter of 2019, partly boosted by the demise of Thomas Cook. Passenger numbers grew by 2.8% year on year, despite widespread disruption from strikes in France during which 871 flights were cancelled between October and December. The airline said that robust demand and slow capacity growth, with only 1% more seats flown, contributed to an increase in revenue per seat of almost 8.8%. It ascribed about one-fifth of that growth to the collapse of rival Thomas Cook last September. While it traditionally struggles to make money through the winter months, easyJet said it was on target for losses “better than 2019” in the first half of the financial year, despite an increased fuel bill.
