ABOUT 100 jobs are at risk in Hayes after the Carphone Warehouse announced it would be closing all of its UK Best Buy electronics superstores.
The 40,000 square-foot megastore at the Lombardy Retail Park, in Coldharbour Lane, is one of 11 ‘big-box’ stores that have failed to make a profit since opening. It will shut by the end of the year.
About 100 people are employed there and local recruits were trained for nine weeks before it opened with a bang in April. The singer and Strictly Come Dancing judge Alesha Dixon performed to hundreds in the store’s car park over the Easter weekend to mark the occasion.
Best Buy staff are now being consulted about the closures. The company has said it is ‘confident it will be able to redeploy the large majority of those affected within other areas of its business’.
Andrew Harrison, Best Buy Europe’s chief executive, said: “Our immediate focus is on ensuring that they are offered new opportunities within Carphone Warehouse, where they will help us deliver a best-in-class customer experience.”
The chain stores come under the umbrella of Best Buy Europe, a joint venture between American company Best Buy and the Carphone Warehouse, following a £1.1 billion deal in 2008.
The Hayes branch was the second of three London stores – the others are in Croydon and Enfield – and there are a further eight dotted around the country.
? Do you work at Best Buy? What do you think of the news? Email jackgriffith@trinitysouth.co.uk
