Carphone Warehouse closes all stores in Ireland

Dixons Carphone has closed all its Carphone Warehouse shops in the Republic of Ireland with immediate effect.

It had 69 standalone Carphone Warehouses in the country and 12 in-store branches employing more than 450 people.

It has also stopped taking orders on its Irish website.

The move will not affect Currys PC World Ireland, which is also part of the Dixons Carphone group.

Last year the firm also closed all its standalone Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK with the loss of about 3,000 jobs.

It said that over the last year Carphone Warehouse Ireland has seen a drop in footfall of more than 40% and a 25% increase in customers buying sim-free handsets.

A statement on its website said: "Customers are changing the way they buy mobile devices and connectivity, replacing their handsets less often and buying them separately or as part of more flexible bundles.

"Although these changes in behaviour were anticipated, they were expected to occur over a longer period of time. However, the change in shopping behaviours has been accelerated by the pandemic."