Best Buy has insisted its plans for the UK are still on course despite it pulling out of a deal to open a store in the north-east of England.

The company had been in talks to take a store on the Team Valley retail park in Gateshead, but has withdrawn from negotiations with the landlord Land Securities.

Best Buy’s roll-out in the UK has been slower than planned and there has been speculation that it has not traded as well as it had hoped. It has opened only six stores so far.

However, the company insists that its growth plans for the UK remain on course and that there was nothing unusual about walking away from the Gateshead deal. It said that for the time being it is concentrating on the south-east, the Midlands and south-west.