Dixons expects to create around 2,000 new jobs in the wake of healthy financials for the six months ending 14 November. Pre-tax profit was up five per cent to £80.9 million, up from the previous year’s figure of £77.1 million. The group said its retail sales had gone up by 11 per cent to £1.43 billion, against £1.28 billion for the same period last year. The group’s retail division saw profit slip by five per cent, recording an operating profit of £62.6 million, compared with £65.8 million last year. Dixons’ chairman, Sir Stanley Kalms, said: "Retail sales for the first eight weeks of the second half (of the year) increased by 14 per cent in total and three per cent on a like-for-like basis." ®