Harvey Nichols swings to losses after store revamp

Announcing its results for the year ending April 1, 2017, the Harvey Nichols Group said in a statement that the company witnessed a loss of 6.7 million pounds (8.9 million dollars) compared to a profit of 3 million pounds (4 million dollars) last year. The company’s turnover remained flat at 194 million pounds (260 million dollars) and EBITDA before exceptionals declined to 7.3 million pounds ((9.7 million dollars) against 12 million pounds (16 million dollars) last year.

Commenting on the results, Stacey Cartwright, CEO of Harvey Nichols Group, said in a media statement: “This was a challenging year for the group as we were undertaking the most demanding phase of our Knightsbridge store refurbishment. We are delighted to have completed the full refurbishment of the ground floor and have received excellent customer and industry reaction to our unique offer across beauty, accessories and fine jewellery.”

Knightsbridge store refurbishment impacts Harvey Nichols’ profits

The company added that it continued the major refurbishment of its flagship store in Knightsbridge, which included the closure of a significant proportion of its ground floor as well as restricting the use of the store entrances, lifts and escalators for eight months of the year. As a direct consequence of this refurbishment programme, there was an impact to group profits.

The company further said that the refurbishment of the Knightsbridge flagship is underway with the two menswear floors already completed and re-opened in April 2016, and the second phase, the ground floor, was unveiled in November 2016. Since re-opening, the company added, new ground floor is seeing strong sales growth with the beauty offer significantly out-performing the market rate of growth.

Launches marketplace, plans a store in Doha next year

February 2016 also saw the launch of marketplace, which now hosts almost 300 brands offering an extended inventory across womenwear, menswear, accessories, homewares and childrenswear. Looking ahead, Harvey Nichols said that the transformation of the Knightsbridge flagship store will continue with the refurbishment of the first floor, which houses womenswear international designers, contemporary collections and designer shoes.

While the UK remains a very important market strategically and commercially for the group, Harvey Nichols added that it will continue to assess opportunities overseas and will be opening a store in Doha, Qatar in 2018, bringing its total international store count to eight. The company currently operates stores in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, Dublin in the Republic of Ireland and a dedicated beauty store, Beauty Bazaar, Harvey Nichols in Liverpool. Internationally, Harvey Nichols has stores in Hong Kong, Dubai, Riyadh, Kuwait, Istanbul and Ankara, which operate under franchise.

Picture:Harvey Nichols website