House of Fraser could disappear from high street, CEO warns
Rather than operating as a traditional department store, Murray told The Telegraph he wants to ‘rethink the space’ and fill it with Frasers Group’s own suite of brands
House of Fraser stores could disappear from the high street altogether, as Frasers plans to pivot away from the traditional department store model, CEO Michael Murray has told the Telegraph.
Murray said the House of Fraser brand could disappear altogether, adding that the “future vision is that House of Fraser will diminish and Frasers will grow”.
He said: “House of Fraser was a broken business when we bought it. We’ve completely changed the operating model. It was mostly concession, the stores were way too big, they were under-invested.”
Rather than operating as a traditional department store, Murray told The Telegraph he wants to “rethink the space” and fill it with Frasers Group’s own suite of brands.
He said the move would give the company greater control and flexibility, allowing it to easily adjust if things are selling well or poorly, adding that the new shops will also be smaller and broadly take the same turnover “out of half the space”.
More than 20 House of Frasers have shut since Mike Ashley bought it out of administration in 2018. However, this year, eight of the smaller format Frasers shops have opened and more openings are planned.
Murray said he is now in talks with former House of Frasers landlords about taking space it had vacated and running multiple businesses out of former department store locations. This would see Sports Direct take the top few floors and Frasers on the lower levels.
It comes as Frasers was said to be eyeing the expansion of Sports Direct’s high street presence, opening new locations in prime shopping centres that it previously “couldn’t afford”.
