House of Fraser is poised to receive a cash injection of £400,000 from Quiz as part of debt repayments the womenswear retailer owes the department store chain.
In a trading update ahead of its AGM, Quiz said the money it owes House of Fraser for the six months to September 30 was “in relation to outstanding debtor balances and other potential costs”.
Prior to House of Fraser’s administration and subsequent acquisition by Sports Direct, Quiz operated 11 concessions and sold through the department store’s ecommerce platform.
Elsewhere in its trading update, Quiz non-executive chairman Peter Cowgill said the board was pleased with the retailer’s performance in the financial year to date.
“We continue to focus on maximising the Quiz brand’s online potential by investing in our websites’ and apps’ on-going development as well as effective marketing activity,” he said.
“In line with our strategy and as anticipated, we are now generating stronger growth through Quiz’s own websites compared to third-party websites, which experienced exceptional growth last year following the launch of partnerships with Zalando and Next.
“Our UK stores and concessions have performed well during the year to date despite the previously reported softening of footfall during April.
“We have opened two new standalone stores during the period (Bluewater shopping centre in Kent and Oxford) and we continue to review opportunities for further expansion of the store estate in line with our strict internal return-on-investment criteria. Both stores have performed encouragingly since opening.
“As part of our active management of our retail portfolio, we closed one store during the period.”
Cowgill added that Quiz’s international business continued to grow and develop in line with expectations.
He also said that with important trading periods in the second half of the financial year still to come, the board was confident the retailer was on track to deliver market expectations for the full year.
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