The joint venture between Carphone Warehouse and US-based Best Buy has announced a commitment to spend an initial €150 million building a European retail chain to compete with the likes of Germany's Media Markt and Britain's Currys and Comet.
According to Best Buy Europe, the consumer experience is often poor in existing consumer electronics shops, and the company intends to differentiate itself in the market with a strong emphasis on service and the use of much larger stores--around 10,000 square metres, to sell a far wider range of goods.
Seemingly not worried by the ongoing financial turmoil, the JV has set itself an aggressive target with the aim to double sales and operating profits from the retail business over the next five years.
Roger Taylor, Carphone's finance director and the new chief executive of the joint venture, said the first Best Buy yellow ticket stores would appear in the UK next summer with up to five being opened by the end of 2009.
Whilst the company has not unveiled the scale of its ambitions, in August the JV let slip that it was planning an aggressive roll-out of up to 200 stores over the long term.
For more on this story:
- go to Financial Times and The Register
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