Huawei gets personal as it commits to UK high street

Controversial Chinese tech giant Huawei has announced plans to launch three stores in the UK.

The move, which carries a £10 million price tag and will create 100+ new jobs, closely follows the UK government’s decision to strip the firm's infrastructure equipment from 5G networks by 2027.

It includes Huawei’s first ever own-brand store, which will open in London’s Olympic Park, Stratford, in October, and will be followed by a retail space and service centre in Manchester, scheduled to launch in February 2021.

An additional London Huawei ‘experience store’ will be opened in early 2021, in addition to the Huawei service centre in Wembley, London, which made its debut in June this year. The new locations will feature its full range of consumer products including smartphones, laptops, tablets, headphones, earbuds, smartwatches, fitness bands and speakers.

Anson Zhang, Managing Director at Huawei’s UK Consumer Business Group, says: “We are excited to be making this strong commitment to the UK, and to be coming to the high street to deliver our innovative new devices and experiences direct to the millions of people who own and love our products.”

“The opening of our new Huawei experience stores and service centres follows the strong growth of our UK consumer business in recent years, and shows the confidence we have in our future here. We know that millions of people here in the UK love our products and we’re delighted we will now have these new high street spaces where we can interact with our owners in a more personal way.”

The UK openings follow recent flagship store openings in Madrid in July 2019, Barcelona in February Paris in March and the second global flagship store which opened in Shanghai in June.