Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy are scaling back their plans for a UK High Street invasion.

The two are working on a joint venture to bring general electronic stores to the UK. But instead of 100 stores the firm will now open about 80 "big box" shops by 2013.

The change is partly to do with the downturn, but also the success of the smaller "Wireless World" store format and the impact of online sales.

Robert Willett, chief exec of Best Buy International, told the FT: "We still look to have the same impact on the market... but we are going about it in a multi-channel, multiformat strategy."

The joint venture now aims to open up to five "big box" stores by next spring.

It has already got hold of sites for between a third and a half of what prices would have been a year and a half ago. It has also got sites for more Wireless World shops. ®