Interim Management Statement

Thursday 12 September 2013

Darty plc Interim Management Statement

Good progress in delivering our strategic plan - 'Nouvelle Confiance'

Darty plc (formerly Kesa Electricals plc) today announces an Interim Management Statement for the period 1 May 2013 to date. Financial information is for the Continuing Group (excluding Darty Spain) for the first quarter period from 1 May 2013 to 31 July 2013, based on unaudited management accounts.

Summary

o Well underway in launching our new '4Ds' plan to Drive trading, Digitalise Darty,

Develop the brand and Deliver cost efficiency

o Managed closure of Darty Spain implemented as planned

channel offer

per cent. Overall gross margin down 90 basis points reflecting mix impact of strong growth in

smart phones and tablets and ongoing price pressure

Q1 revenue change (3 months to 31 July)

* Datart and Darty Turkey.

Régis Schultz, Chief Executive, commented:

"We are making good progress with our 'Nouvelle Confiance' strategy to deliver an improvement in earnings over the medium-term and I am pleased with the progress we have made with our new '4Ds' plan to Drive trading, Digitalise Darty, Develop the brand and Deliver cost efficiency. I am excited about the year ahead, which presents significant opportunities to further drive in-store improvements for the benefit of our customers and shareholders, better exploiting our platform as France's market leading electrical retailer. Our powerful online platform continues to grow rapidly, enabling ever more customers to access the unique Darty offer.

"We have made a solid start to the year, with continued market share gains in our core markets. Nevertheless, the economic backdrop remains difficult and we expect the combination of these challenging market conditions and changes to our product mix to continue to put pressure on margins. We aim to mitigate this through our cost saving programmes which, given the implementation timeframe, we expect to be more weighted to the second half of the year."

Continuing Group

Excluding the new Darty Telecom agreement, total Group revenue was down 1.7 per cent. Like-for-like sales were down 1.0 per cent. We saw strong growth in smart phones and tablets and progress in large white goods and small domestic appliances, while vision weakened against a stronger comparative from the European football championships last year. Further double-digit growth in web-generated sales confirms the customer appeal of our cross-channel offer.

Gross margin was down 90 basis points reflecting in part the strong growth of communications and multimedia and reduction in vision in the mix as well as ongoing price pressure.

Darty France

Darty France strongly outperformed the market in the period, with market share gains in all major product categories. Total revenue was down 1.5 per cent excluding the new Darty Telecom agreement. On a like-for-like basis sales decreased by 0.4 per cent with growth in all major categories offset by continued weakness in vision sales. As part of our plan to drive trading, we launched our "Darty Days" campaign where customers could accumulate points through their level of expenditure and specifically promoted products to redeem discounts on purchases during the second quarter. Darty also held its first ever sale in the period, and we were pleased by the customer response and traffic generated by this. Overall sales also benefited from weather related purchases of refrigeration and air conditioning products at the end of the period. Web-generated sales grew nearly 8 per cent to over 14 per cent of total product sales.

Overall, gross margin was down 70 basis points. This reflected the benefit of the new Darty Telecom agreement, off-set by the accrued cost of the Darty Days campaign and underlying gross margin down 80 basis points. This reduction in underlying gross margin resulted from the impact of strong growth of smart phones and tablets in the mix and ongoing competitive market conditions and price pressure.

We are making good progress with our '4Ds' plan. In the first quarter, the first in-store service desk ("Atelier Darty") was introduced in the Paris Ternes store, with a very positive customer response.

In addition, the head office reorganization plan to improve on competitiveness and efficiency is progressing well.

During the quarter we completed the sale of the three Darty stores in Luxembourg.

Belgium and the Netherlands

At Vanden Borre in Belgium and BCC in the Netherlands revenue fell by 1.4 per cent and by 1.5 per cent on a like-for-like basis, against double-digit growth in the same period last year. Web-generated sales continued to grow very strongly, up again over 40 per cent to over 10 per cent of total product sales.

Vanden Borre strengthened its position with sales growth and market share gains. BCC continued to be adversely impacted by what remains a very difficult and highly promotional market. Continued strong growth of lower margin communications products in both markets and the competitive conditions in the Netherlands resulted in further gross margin pressure of 100 basis points, albeit less than in previous quarters.

Other

Revenue at Datart and Darty Turkey fell by 4.2 per cent in local currency and by 5.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis, with an improved trend in Turkey. Reflecting the ongoing focus in Turkey, gross margin was flat for the period.

Discontinued operations - Darty Spain

The managed closure of the operations in Spain has progressed in line with our expectations, with all stores having been closed in June. The cash cost of closure to be incurred in the first half of 2013/14 is expected be around the €30 million previously anticipated.

Financial position

Except as detailed above, there have been no material events or transactions impacting the Group's financial position that have taken place since the previously announced 30 April 2013 balance sheet date.

Outlook

The economic backdrop remains difficult and we expect the combination of these challenging market conditions and changes to our product mix to continue to put pressure on margins. We aim to mitigate this through our cost saving programmes which, given the implementation timeframe, we expect to be more weighted to the second half of the year

Store numbers and selling space as at 31 July

* Datart and Darty Turkey.

There will be a telephone conference call for analysts at 08:00 on 12 September 2013. Dial-in number: +44 (0) 20 3003 2666. A recording of this call will be made available after 10.00am. Replay dial-in number: +44 (0) 20 8196 1998, Access Pin: 3791711.

The Group will issue its Half Year Results on Wednesday 11 December 2013.

Enquiries

Analysts

Darty plc

Simon Ward +44 (0) 20 7269 1400

Media

France

Le Public Système

Ségolène de Saint Martin +33 1 41 34 23 31

About Darty plc

Darty group is a leading cross-channel, service led, electrical retailer operating over 400 stores in six European countries and achieving over 13 per cent of its product sales on the web. It generated annual revenue of over €3.5 billion in 2012/13 through operations in Darty France, Vanden Borre in Belgium, BCC in the Netherlands, Datart in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and Darty Turkey. Its ordinary shares are listed with the UK Listing Authority and trade on the market for listed securities on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol DRTY.L. It is also listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris.

For further information, please visit the group's website, www.dartygroup.com.

Certain statements made in this announcement are forward looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any expected future results in forward looking statements. Unless otherwise required by applicable laws, regulations or accounting standards, Darty plc does not undertake any obligation to update or revise any forward looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.