diff --git a/src/spatialdata_io/readers/xenium.py b/src/spatialdata_io/readers/xenium.py
index f81dd37a..f7aedbf7 100644
--- a/src/spatialdata_io/readers/xenium.py
+++ b/src/spatialdata_io/readers/xenium.py
@@ -168,7 +168,9 @@ def _poly(arr: ArrayLike) -> Polygon:
 
 def _get_points(path: Path, specs: dict[str, Any]) -> Table:
     table = read_parquet(path / XeniumKeys.TRANSCRIPTS_FILE)
-    table["feature_name"] = table["feature_name"].apply(lambda x: x.decode("utf-8"), meta=("feature_name", "object"))
+    table["feature_name"] = table["feature_name"].apply(
+        lambda x: x.decode("utf-8") if isinstance(x, bytes) else str(x), meta=("feature_name", "object")
+    )
 
     transform = Scale([1.0 / specs["pixel_size"], 1.0 / specs["pixel_size"]], axes=("x", "y"))
     points = PointsModel.parse(