Best Buy delays launch of UK shops

Retail assault pushed back

4 March 2009 11:16 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

American retail chain Best Buy is to delay its entry to the UK market.

Best Buy has pushed back the launch timescale for its retail assault on Blighty, postponing the opening of shops from their original summer 2009 schedule.

In a joint venture with Carphone Warehouse, Best Buy now plans to launch in the first quarter of 2010.

Roger Taylor, Carphone's finance director and chief executive of the retailing joint venture, told the Financial Times: "Because of the economic climate [it is] more sensible to wait for better sites".

Best Buy slashed profit predictions and scaled down launch plans in the US at the end of last year, whilst Carphone Warehouse has recently warned over hundreds of jobs at risk.

Rival retail company DSGi announced this week that it plans to open a number of larger Currys superstores in the UK, said at the time to be "designed to combat the arrival of US electrical retail giant Best Buy later this year".