Best Buy delays launch of first UK store -FT

March 4 (Reuters) - U.S. retailer Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) has postponed the launch of its first British store until the first quarter of 2010, the Financial Times said.

The specialty retailer of consumer electronics had planned to open its first store in Britain in the summer of 2009, in a joint venture with Carphone Warehouse, (CPW.L) the paper said.

Roger Taylor, Carphone's finance director and chief executive of the retailing joint venture, told the paper the postponement was "unrelated" to Best Buy's woes.

"If it makes more commercial sense to open three or four months later, that is what we will do," Taylor told the paper.

Best Buy's sales have come under pressure as consumers cut back during the recession. The retailer said last month that it would lay off 250 workers at its corporate headquarters in Minneapolis as it cuts costs in the recession. [ID:nN19536763] (Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Dan Lalor)