UK's EE to Close 78 High Street Stores
Streamlining operations.
T-Mobile and Orange are both owned by the same company. Until recently, the two companies remained quite separate. However, the launch of parent company EE's new 4G carrier has also seen some effort to offer a more unified front for the company's three carriers and the company recently rebranded T-Mobile and Orange stores as EE locations.
EE revealed that it is shutting down just under 80 of its stores to cut down on duplicate shops. Speaking to ZDNet, the company said it's set to close some of its shops in an effort to streamline costs and solve issues like having two stores next door to each other.
"Where we have two EE stores in very close proximity to each other — in some places they are just a door away — we have decided to consolidate," the company told ZDNet. "This makes commercial sense and will also help us manage the high levels of demand in our stores and improve the customer experience," an EE spokeswoman said in a statement on Thursday."
EE will move staff from the affected locations to other stores, which it hopes will actually improve service at those stores. Of course, managers might be a little bit harder to accommodate because, as EE points out, a store can only really have one. Still, the company said it will look to 'redeploy the small number of affected managers where possible.'
"All front line staff will be moving to the other stores, which will boost service levels significantly. A store can only have one manager, so we will look to redeploy the small number of affected managers where possible," the company said.
No word on when the stores will close but we'll keep you posted.
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.