A MOBILE phone company which is axing up to 120 call centre jobs in the North-East plans to open 30 stores by the end of the year.

Everything Everywhere, the owner of merged mobile phone companies Orange and T-Mobile, is expected to shift payment processing and credit control positions from its Darlington site to Asia as part of a company restructure.

In April, the company made an about-turn by admitting it had made an error in suggesting some of the Darlingtonbased staff could keep their jobs by transferring to the Philippines, about 7,000 miles away.

Its retail division, however, will defy the high street gloom by opening stores, which will create 150 jobs. The Everything Everywhere branded shops will allow customers to download applications directly to their smartphones, and will sell tablet computers such as Apple’s iPad2, as well as phones.

They will also offer mobile phone battery recharges, even for people who do not subscribe to either company, phone repairs, and the use of free wi-fi.

A trial of five stores showed that the new format helped boost footfall by 25 per cent compared to other stores, the company said.

It has not disclosed the locations of the new stores.