Nokia to quit West End flagship shop
Nokia is ready to move forward with its plans to roll out its new retail strategy, which will include closing its flagship store on Regent Street, London.
The mobile phone manufacturer confirmed that it will be closing the Regent Store in an email that stated Nokia is working on improving the way its retail network works to provide the best branded strategy. As a result t needs to revamp its current strategy which calls for the closure of the flagship store.
The store originally opened back in early 2008 and cost a total of ?4m. It was said to have been spawned by the Finland forests and covered an area of about 8,000 sq. ft. with LED walls that were translucent. Inside the walls were fitted with LCD screens that had audio-visual messages synchronized across them.
Even though the store took a unique approach to design it was not able to draw in enough business which led to low revenues even with occasional long lines during mobile launches.
The store will officially be shut down in early 2010 and the staff will be set to other retail outlets owned by Nokia. Each of the other seven Nokia stores will receive overhauls.
Apple ironically has a store down the street from the flagship store that is supposedly the most profitable Apple outlet. This competition is seen as one of the reasons why Apple was not able to keep its doors open.
