Black Friday is here to stay, according to Dixons Carphone boss

The one-off discount day saw the company record its best ever trading day.

Britons are expected to spend £1.9bn on promotions on Black Friday (Getty)

Currys PC World and Carphone Warehouse boss says Black Friday is here to stay, even if it is abandoned by the supermarkets who brought it to the UK.

Seb James told the Independent he was not surprised that Asda, which started the shopping binge day in Britain, played no part in the event this year.

He added: “Customers don’t really want a cheap Chinese telly; what they want is a great deal on what they actually want to buy.

“While there was clearly some demand for it, the supermarkets don’t make any money from it.”

The one-off discount day, which turned out to be a bigger success online that on high streets this year, saw the company record its best ever day of trading, and James said the website did not crash or have to rely on a queuing system like last year.

He added: “We were quite close at the peak hour. It was like the Starship Enterprise, with our finger hovering over the button wondering whether it was ready to blow.”

Around 80 per cent of shoppers browsed the website by tablet or smartphone in the morning – as commuters headed to work – switching to desktops in the afternoon while sat at workstations across the country.

Mobile phones were also included in the deals for the first time, which James said was particularly successful.

The news came as the company revealed sales in the six months to the end of October were up 5 per cent, with the UK up 7 per cent on a like-for-like basis – although this slowed in the second half of the period to just 4 per cent.

Sales hit £4.39 billion with pretax profits up 18.6 per cent to £121 million.

Sales of tablets have plummeted as customers stick with their current models longer than the typical lifespan of a mobile phone, however, there was better news with a rise in white goods sales, thanks to an improved housing market.

James said: “People are refurbishing their houses. There’s still a bit of tension left over from the recession, but for us when the housing market is better we tend to benefit.”

The company also revealed that former BT boss and Government minister Lord Ian Livingstone as deputy chairman.

He is widely credited with turning around BT’s fortunes and James said he will be asking Livingstone for advice with Carphone Warehouse.

Tony DeNunzio, former boss of Asda was also appointed to the board

Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals