O2 looks to extend retail outlet franchising plans

 Operator could add a further 10-15 per cent of initial store target due to its good progress and strong list of candidates

Almost half of all O2 retail stores could soon be franchise run, after the operator admitted it was considering adding a further dozen of its stores to the scheme.

Last October, the operator said it would franchise 82 of its 462 stores this year, taking total franchised outlets to 202. They are available for investments of around £50,000.

The first franchisees will open stores in Glasgow this week, with the remainder to follow soon. Adding a further 12 stores would take total franchised outlets to 214 – almost half of O2’s retail estate.

The operator labelled the quality of people that had applied to be a franchisee as “excellent”, and claimed O2 had a queue of retail employees ready to take up the franchising option.

O2 UK CEO Ronan Dunne said: “We’re making really good progress with our franchising programme. The quality of people that have been applying has been excellent.

“We have already migrated some people onto franchise and there is the potential to – if we choose to – do even more stores than the ones we initially targeted.

“It would probably be 10-15 per cent more stores going into that programme.

“We haven’t made that decision yet but we have a sufficiently strong list of candidates that certainly have that option.”