Best Buy chief executive Bob Willett has confirmed the retailer will not make its UK debut until spring 2010 at the earliest.

Speaking at the Retail Week Conference, Willett said: “My biggest concern is that this is a very mature and tough market. If we’re not ready in the spring then we won’t open. You only open once. Get that wrong and the press will use that forever and a day.”

Willett added: “The road to international growth is littered with casualties.” He added it is all too easy to “go the way a lot of retailers have gone, and that’s down the swanny”.

He was speaking in a session which outlined how Best Buy was reinventing its supply chain to boost customer loyalty and sales.

Part of its modernisation programme has involved ensuring store colleagues are consulted every 12 weeks in order to gain customer feedback.

“It’s about what the customer thinks, rather than what a logistics function thinks or what I think. We will bring all that capability with us. This is about opening a complete multichannel business.”

Topics