UK based Carphone Warehouse (CPW) has detailed an initial US$154 million plan to rollout a chain of Best Buy branded stores throughout Europe - as part of its joint venture with the US firm of the same name. The company also extended its Best Buy Mobile format into Canada with both standalone store and store-within-a-store formats.
Charles Dunstone, Chief Executive Officer, said: "Trading in the second quarter was good, as we continued to invest in margin to drive strong volume growth, and we made significant market share gains as a result. Subscription growth has been excellent, and the decline in the rate of pre-pay growth is to be expected given the wider consumer environment. The telecoms business continues to perform well, with a strong focus on operational improvements and customer service enhancements."
Total connections were up 9% to 3.1m year-on-year. Growth was driven by subscription connections, which were up 21% to 1.3m, while Pre-pay connections were up 2% to 1.7m. In the UK, the iPhone 3G also boosted sales and appeared to be predominantly incremental business, delivering us material market share gains.
After a prolonged period of strong growth, the firm warned that pre-pay market now appears to be coming under pressure from a weaker consumer backdrop. However, they have a very strong Christmas offering and believe that growing interest in music and other applications can provide support to this part of the market.
The company ended the period with 2,430 stores.
Posted to the site on 14th October 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/34126.php