Q1 Trading Update

Carphone Warehouse Group PLC
31 July 2003

Thursday 31 July 2003

Embargoed until 0700 hours

The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC

First Quarter Trading Update

The Carphone Warehouse, which is holding its AGM today at 11.00 am, announces a
strong first quarter performance across its key divisions, and remains confident
of the outlook.  Figures relate to the 13 weeks to 28 June 2003.

Distribution

  • Retail like-for-like revenues up 13.7% and gross profit up 10.0%
  • Total connections up 16.5% to 1.00m
  • Subscription connections up 17.0% to 0.48m
  • Insurance base up 9.6% to 1.07m

Telecoms Services

  • Mobile customer base up to 1.84m, including 0.66m Hutchison customers
  • Fixed line revenues of £54.8m
  • 369m minutes of fixed line traffic carried in June
  • talktalkTM up to 86,000 tolling customers as at 30 July 2003, with 22,000
    applications pending

Charles Dunstone, Chief Executive Officer, said:

'Trading has continued to be strong in the new financial year.  Our core
businesses are performing very well, with growth in subscription connections
showing a very healthy trend across the group.  talktalkTM applications have
accelerated as public awareness becomes greater and we continue to believe that
this presents the group with a significant opportunity for growth over the
medium term.'

Distribution

Total connections grew by 16.5% in the first 13 weeks of the year, driven by
strong demand in all categories.  Subscription sales continued the strong trend
of the fourth quarter of the previous financial year, and pre-pay and SIM-free
continued to sell well.  Within Retail, revenues grew by 18.5%.  Like-for-like
revenue growth was 13.7% and like-for-like gross profit growth was 10.0%.

Our Insurance customer base grew by 9.6% year-on-year to 1.07m.  Although
absolute growth in the base has been subdued over the last quarter, the mix
between high tier and low tier customers has improved.  Insurance revenues grew
37.7% to £19.5m.

Ongoing revenues grew 41.4% to £8.5m, supported by good subscription growth over
the last three quarters.

Wholesale

Wholesale revenues fell 59.2% to £68.0m.  As reported in the 2003 preliminary
results statement on 3 June 2003, the group has suspended its European handset
wholesale trading activities amidst uncertainty surrounding the implications of
the 2003 Budget announcement on the recovery of VAT on mobile phone trading.  We
will continue to restrict these activities until such time as we obtain clarity
from HM Customs & Excise on the implications of joint and several liability.

Telecoms Services

Underlying revenues in Mobile grew 18.4%, supported by the organic growth of
11.0% in our UK and France customer bases.  In addition, as part of the
agreement with Sainsbury's, we acquired a base of 40,000 mobile customers on the
existing Sainsbury's mobile service.  The integration of Hutchison
Telecommunications with our German retail operations are well advanced, and the
acquisition contributed £17.3m to revenues in the quarter.

Fixed Line revenues were £54.8m, equivalent to growth of 73.2% on Opal's
equivalent period last year.  Minutes switched through the Opal network grew by
91.4% over the same period.  The Opal network carried 369m minutes of traffic in
June, up from 321m minutes in March.  Our talktalkTM customer base continues to
grow strongly, and as at 30 July 2003 we had 86,000 tolling customers and 22,000
pending applications.  We have recently launched our mobile and fixed line offer
with Sainsbury's and continue to pursue other third party opportunities for
talktalkTM.

Conference call

There will be a conference call for investors and analysts at 8.30 am this
morning.   The dial-in numbers are 0845 245 3471 in the UK and [phone]
for international callers.  A replay will be available for seven days, for which
the dial-in numbers are 0845 245 5205 in the UK and [phone] for
international callers.  The replay access code is 314691#.

Next trading update

The group will issue a first half trading update on 13 October 2003, and publish
its interim results on 4 November 2003.

For Further Information

The Carphone Warehouse Group PLC
Charles Dunstone
Roger Taylor                                              020 8753 8200
Vanessa Tipple                                            07947 000 021

For analyst and institutional enquiries
Roger Taylor                                              07715 170 090
Peregrine Riviere                                         07909 907193

Citigate Dewe Rogerson                                    07973 611 888
Anthony Carlisle                                          020 7638 9571



Operating and Financial Statistics

•         Connections, mix and store numbers

                                                 13 weeks to 28 June 2003

                                           2003                2002            % change
Connections
Subscription                                  478,876             409,175           17.0%
Pre-pay                                       413,041             362,059           14.1%
SIM-free                                      109,301              88,182           23.9%
Group                                       1,001,218             859,416           16.5%

Store numbers                                   1,151               1,110            3.7%


•         Like for like data

                                             13 weeks to 28 June 2003

                                           Revenue            Gross Profit

Group                                       13.7%                10.0%

•         Revenues (£000s)

                                                13 weeks to 28 June 2003

                                        2003                2002            % change
Distribution
Retail                                       179,826             151,794           18.5%
Online                                         9,932               9,240            7.5%
Insurance                                     19,504              14,166           37.7%
Ongoing                                        8,536               6,037           41.4%
Total                                        217,798             181,237           20.2%

Wholesale                                     67,972             166,495         (59.2%)

Telecoms Services
Mobile                                        41,354              20,336          103.4%
Fixed Line                                    54,771                   -               -
Total                                         96,125              20,336          372.7%

Group Total                                  381,895             368,068            3.8%




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange