Best Buy aims for significant UK mobile share
Published: 20 March, 2009
READ MORE: UK
US electronics retail giant Best Buy has ambitious plans to expand in Europe, having signed a joint venture last year with UK-based Carphone Warehouse. The partners plan to launch their first superstore in the UK in April 2010, and expect handsets to be a key product, as the market picks up.
Bob Willett, CEO of Best Buy International, thinks the timing will be strong for Best Buy not only to claim "significant share" of the UK mobile and devices market, but also to help expand the total size of that market.
He told the Retail Week conference in London that he was not yet quantifying a market share target, but "expects to expand the market", because Best Buy will provide a "more complex set of offerings" and a different value proposition to other retailers like Tesco.
The company is also taking advantage of the property slump to find store sites at good prices, although it has delayed the opening of its first large format UK store, co-branded with Carphone Warehouse - originally set for July this year. The partners plan about 100 stores in the UK, to be opened between 2010 and 2015, mainly in out-of-town locations, and another 100 will be opened in mainland Europe by 2013.
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