Carphone dismisses claims Best Buy is finding it tough

Carphone Warehouse today rejected suggestions that its new joint-venture Best Buy electrical superstores had got off to a shaky start, with more business going to its rivals in out-of-town shopping centres where they compete.

The three stores, in Thurrock, Birmingham and Southampton, concentrate on using the United States retailer's expertise in selling big-ticket electronics by employing a high level of service.

Carphone chief executive Roger Taylor said: "We are delighted with the initial response from customers and are committed to our roll-out.

"Rivals were undercutting our prices locally when we opened but we are not trying to be the same as Currys, who sell things like Hoovers, kettles and white goods which don't require the service levels we offer.

"When we open our online business in the autumn we will be very aggressive in those areas."

Taylor also pointed out that DSG, Currys' owner, had been forced to bring Phones4u to run its onstore mobile phone offerings.

The original Carphone Warehouse business saw a 3.7% growth in same-store sales in the three months to end-June, driven largely by demand for smartphones. The latest i-Phone was launched at the end of the period and Taylor said demand had been extremely good with very few returns.

In the US, Best Buy Mobile, which has over 1000 outlets, saw rapid growth with connections up 29.7% to 1.43 million.

Carphone shares rose 11.25p to 227.25p.