Electricals retailer Dixons Carphone has experienced some “teething” issues supplying Ireland in the wake of the post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union which kicked-in on January 1, its boss said today.

“There have been some teething troubles when it comes to the Republic of Ireland business but in short we’re confident we can get over the disruption there,” CEO Alex Baldock.

He made his comments after the company updated on Christmas trading.

“One of the areas that we benefit from being number one at what we do – we’re first in the queue for scarce stock with our suppliers and we’ve been able to manage the situation to keep some disruption to customers to a minimum,” he said.

He said it would take “days and weeks” to resolve rather than months.

The company earlier said that strong online sales of large screen televisions, smart tech and food preparation gadgets helped it report an 11% rise in underlying sales of electricals in its Christmas trading period.

The group trades as Currys PC World and Carphone Warehouse in Ireland and the UK.

It said the online performance more than offset the closure of stores during Covid-19 lockdowns.

However, the outcome for the 10 weeks to January 9 did represent a slowdown from growth of 17% in its first half.

While its shops have been closed during lockdowns, Dixons Carphone has benefited from people working from home and buying equipment for their houses online.

The group said UK & Ireland like-for-like revenue was up 8% over the 10 weeks with online sales up 121%, while international like-for-like sales rose 14%.

“At present there are enforced closures of large parts of our operations across the UK, Ireland and Denmark and there is no certainty on when these will end,” CEO Alex Baldock said.

“The business has proven that it can deliver a strong trading performance irrespective of these restrictions,” the CEO added.

Revenue at the group’s UK & Ireland mobile phone division, which is being restructured, fell 40% over the 10 weeks, reflecting a decision in March to close standalone Carphone Warehouse stores.

Dixons Carphone forecast full-year 2020-21 profits in line with market expectations despite the store closures.

Analysts were forecasting a pretax profit of £147m on average before today’s update, down from £166m made in 2019-20.

Shares in Dixons Carphone are down 13% over the last year.