House of Fraser could completely vanish from the high street as part of mass rebrand of the business, the retailer’s CEO has announced.
Frasers Group boss Michael Murray said its current strategy is to move away from the traditional department store model in favour of a premium concept model filled with the group’s own suite of brands.
The chief executive told The Telegraph: “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.”
Subscribe to Retail Gazette for free
Sign up here to get the latest news straight into your inbox each morning
He continued: “Our future vision is that House of Fraser will diminish and Frasers will grow. We’ve just been obsessing over really building what Frasers should be and working towards that answer.”
Murray said the group planned to downsize some of its larger store units as “most department stores could broadly take the same turnover out of half the space”.
Mike Ashley’s retail empire unveiled its 10th Frasers flagship in Norwich last month, with three more locations set to open this year.
Frasers Group saw pre-tax profits nearly double to over £660m in the year to the end of April, compared to £335.6m last year.
Murray attributed the rise in profits to both the group’s breadth of brands and focus on a younger demographic.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
