Best Buy To Open 90 New Flagship Stores

by Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 2/21/2007

Minneapolis — Best Buy plans to open about 90 new flagship stores and will relocate eight others over the next 12 months.

The expansion will bring Best Buy’s store count to 900 and will create 12,000 new retail management, sales and service jobs, the company said.

Roughly 60 of the new stores will be in the 30,000-square-foot format, 20 will be 45,000-square-foot superstores, and 10 will be in the chain’s 20,000-square-foot format, which is generally employed in urban areas. Most of the new stores will be opened between now and November in existing Best Buy markets.

In addition, Best Buy intends to open as many as five new Pacific Sales Kitchen and Bath Centers in Southern California over the next 12 months. The specialty majap chain, acquired by Best Buy last year, currently operates 14 stores.

“We are intensely focused on driving the earnings growth of Best Buy,” said Brian Dunn, president/COO. “We are allocating our capital to extend our growth runway, build business capabilities and enter new markets and customer segments. We continue to find prime new store locations, allowing us to attract new customers, to serve our current customers better and to grow our market share profitably.”

Internationally, Best Buy plans to open approximately 35 new locations, including upwards of 14 Best Buy and Future Shop stores in Canada, and as many as 25 new Five Star and three new Best Buy stores in China over the next 12 to 18 months.

As previously reported, Best Buy is also expanding its relationship with Britain’s Carphone Warehouse by providing Geek Squad home PC support services to its customers in the United Kingdom. In the United States, Carphone and Best Buy are collaborating on a mobile specialty store concept called Best Buy Mobile. Five freestanding and four in-store shops are currently being tested in the New York metro area.

In a statement, CEO Brad Anderson said, “Our focus is on reaching new customers in new markets or new ways. We are very encouraged by the number of growth opportunities in front of us. Our core U.S. Best Buy business is growing as our employees continue to find ways to contribute their unique ideas and experiences in service of our customers.”

“In fact,” he continued, “we believe that employee ingenuity, when coupled with customer insights, provides a platform for retail success around the globe. We know that the better we listen to our customers, the better we are able to provide the experiences that reflect their particular lifestyles and priorities — regardless of whether they interact with us in a store, in their home or business, online or on the phone.”