House of Fraser will see revamp under new owner

Baugur, the group that owns House of Fraser, has stated it wants to ‘shake up' the boring high street. The group this week officially took over the department store group and is set on spending a formidable sum to bring House of Fraser back into the foreground. In recent years, the HoF has lagged behind stores such as Selfridges and John Lewis, who's fashion offering was deemed dull and uninspiring.

John King was named chief executive of House of Fraser on Wednesday as expected, and the group was taken over in a £351m (€523.4m) deal by Baugur-led consortium Highland Acquisitions. The sale is Baugur's biggest acquisition in the UK, and turnover for its companies is estimated at £10bn.

As was reported in The Times on Thursday, Baugur's head Asgeir Johannesson stated the group will take two years to turn around the store chain. As part of the overhaul, Johannesson said he planned to ditch the bulk of House of Fraser's 14 brands, including Rackhams, Binns and Army & Navy, and introduce new names to inject some originality into Britain's "boring" high streets... "What is boring about the British high street is the duplication," he told the newspaper.?"High street stores are the same and those same store brands are in the department stores. We have the opportunity to bring in exciting brands and spice it up a bit."

Johannesson said Jenners, the Scottish chain bought by House of Fraser last year, would be the only regional name retained in the long run. He also pledged to spend "tens of millions" on modernising the stores. John King joins House of Fraser from Matalan since and is due to start early next year, replacing John Coleman, who stepped down from his 10-year post after completion of the takeover. King will work alongside executive chairman Don McCarthy, who set up the Shoe Studio Group in 1991. He replaces Michael Wemms.