House of Fraser to close 4 more stores

House of Fraser has announced plans to close a further four stores.

The closures will be in Nottingham, Norwich, Newcastle’s Metro Centre and the Lakeside shopping centre in Essex after a lower rent could not be agreed with landlords.

“We had multiple meetings with Intu but we were no further forward after 14 weeks. Unfortunately, these stores now face closing in the new year,” said Sports Direct (LON: SPD) boss Mike Ashley.

The properties that the stores are located in belong to Intu.

“I urge other institutional landlords to be more proactive to help save the House of Fraser stores in their schemes,” added Ashley.

Intu said in a statement: “House of Fraser stores in our portfolio will be closing in early 2019, representing around 1% of our secured rent and 526,000 sq ft of retail space.”

“We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to re-engineer and re-let this underperforming space to new and exciting alternatives.”

Since buying the department store earlier this year, Ashley hoped he would save most of the House of Fraser stores. Although he has protected many, about eight are due to close.

In the past, the tycoon has blamed “greedy landlords” for the closures.

He paid £90 million for the stores and said he hoped to turn them into “the Harrods of the High Street”. He has currently saved 22 House of Fraser stores from closure, protecting 3500 jobs.

The collapse of the department store was blamed on its failure to embrace the shift to internet shopping, too many stores and management woes.

 

 

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Safiya focuses on business and political stories for UK Investor Magazine. Her interests include international development, travel and politics.