Tesco has unveiled plans to double the number of its in-store phone shops over the next year in a bid to challenge market leader Carphone Warehouse .
Britain’s largest supermarket chain currently has around 50 mobile and landline phone outlets in its largest stores but hopes to expand its portfolio to 100 by the end of next March.
Tesco said the telecoms centres, which offer a range of pay as you go and contract mobiles as well as landline deals, will be re-branded as “Phone Shop” and rolled-out into all 210 of its Tesco Extra stores over the next three years.
The decision comes a month after the retail giant announced plans to open 30 in-store bank branches by the end of 2009, offering customers existing Tesco Personal Finance products, which include insurance, credit cards and savings accounts, as well as access to its price comparison site TescoCompare.com.
The move is part of the company’s goal of achieving annual profits of 1 billion pounds ($1.5 billion) from retail services such as banking and telecoms.
Tesco is set to confirm its position as the dominant force in UK retail by reporting record annual profits of £3 billion, despite experiencing one of the toughest years of trading in a decade.
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