Jobs to go as Darty cuts costs in France

Darty, the electronics retailer formerly known as Kesa, plans to cut costs in its core French market to cope with the weaker economy, its chief executive said yesterday. The move could entail job cuts, Regis Schultz added, but not store closures.

Mr Schultz also said the group is not up for sale and that relations with its leading shareholder, the activist investor Knight Vinke, were good.

Darty sold its stores in Italy and Britain, where it traded as Comet, last year and is now focusing on its core markets of France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Shares in the London-listed Darty rose 1 per cent to 71.25p.