Best Buy Europe, the retail venture that's 50% owned by The Carphone Warehouse, says it's creating up to 8,000 jobs in the UK over a five-year period. Up to a thousand of these roles will be with its 24-hour Geek Squad technology support service, with Geek Squad staff planned in every Best Buy store. In fact, Geek Squad – which launched in the UK in 2007 – says it'll quadruple its tech support team numbers during the next 18 months.
Best Buy is launching in the UK in Spring 2010, with the first stores in Hedge End Southampton, Thurrock and Merry Hill in the West Midlands. As well as selling mobile phones they'll offer multimedia equipment, computing technology, appliances, music, movies and games.
All in-store recruits are trained over a nine-week period in Best Buy's ‘Blue Shirt Academy', named after the distinctive blue staff uniforms.
Paul Antoniadis, CEO of Best Buy Branded Operations, said "Our focus is on helping our customers make buying technology simple, exciting and interactive. As a result, services are integral to the Best Buy proposition as we create and build a business that will illustrate, advise and connect our customers' choice of consumer electronics – and our people will achieve that goal with an unwavering commitment to impartial and expert customer service. That's why we're so committed to extensively training our store-based employees in order for them to work in a truly customer-focused way – and why we're delighted to be bringing Geek Squad services to our future customers."