Carphone Warehouse said results in its first quarter to June were in line with expectations and the company is maintaining its outlook for fiscal 2012. At its retail division, sales were down in the UK due to the shift from 18 to 24 month contracts and a continuing weak prepay market. While like-for-like sales growth was positive in the rest of Europe, thanks to smartphone promotions, total connections were still down 5.5 percent to 2.536 million. Like-for-like sales across the retail division declined by 3.3 percent, and total sales fell 4.8 percent to GBP 756 million. Best Buy Mobile in the US delivered strong like-for-like sales growth in the quarter, driven by continued momentum on postpay smartphones and strong performance on accessories and services. Total connections grew by 12.3 percent to 1.6 million. At Virgin Mobile France, the MVNO added a net 68,000 customers in the quarter and passed a total 2 million in July. Quarterly revenues were up 16.4 percent to EUR 108 million, helped by a wide range of smartphones and creative marketing campaigns.
