(File photo: Huawei's flagship store in Shanghai)
Huawei has announced it will invest £10 million to open three stores in London and Manchester.
The first store will open in London’s Olympic Park, Stratford, in October 2020. It will be Huawei's first-ever own-brand store on the UK’s High Street.
In February 2021, Huawei will open a dedicated retail store and service center in Manchester.
An additional London Huawei Experience Store will be opened in early 2021, in addition to the Huawei Service Center in Wembley, London, which opened in June this year.
The opening of these stores will create over 100 new jobs in the UK.
“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 directly to the millions of people who own and love our products,” said Anson Zhang, MD of Huawei’s UK Consumer Business Group.
“The opening of our new Huawei Experience Stores and Service Centers follows the strong growth of our UK consumer business in recent years, and shows the confidence we have in our future here,” said Zhang.
“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,” he added.
The decision by Huawei to try and connect to the British consumer comes after the UK decided to phase out the Chinese tech giant from 5G networks.
The UK government on Tuesday made a landmark decision to block Huawei equipment from being used throughout its 5G infrastructure.
Starting December 31, mobile network operators in the UK would be forced to stop buying equipment from Huawei. They will also be required to strip out Huawei gear from their infrastructure by 2027.
The decision will put the UK's 5G build-out on track to be delayed by two to three years, UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said yesterday while announcing the decision to phase out Huawei.
He added that the UK would pay an economic cost of as much as £2 billion for it.
Regarding the decision, Ed Brewster, a spokesperson for Huawei UK, said this disappointing decision is bad news for anyone in the UK with a mobile phone. It threatens to move Britain into the digital slow lane, push up bills and deepen the digital divide.
Instead of "leveling up" the government is leveling down and we urge them to reconsider, he said.
