Home Fashion House of Fraser to launch small-store fashion format ' HOF'

House of Fraser to launch small-store fashion format ' HOF'

House of Fraser, the department-store chain controlled by Icelandic investor Baugur, is developing a new small-store fashion format that could aid its expansion plans in town and city centres. Don McCarthy, chairman of House of Fraser, who is also a Baugur board director, said the group had worked up plans for small stores which would be branded HOF – rather than the full House of Fraser name. The stores would focus on fashion – including its own labels such as Linea, which McCarthy has said he expects to increase from a £30m business to a £100m one. McCarthy said: “There are certain cities, such as Cambridge, where we don’t think we can have a big store – but we could have a smaller fashion store.” He said the new format would be between 40,000 sq ft and 50,000 sq ft, less than half the group’s usual 100,000 sq ft to 120,000 sq ft format. “We want to make sure that we don’t just look at cities and towns and think that the only option is one big-size format,” McCarthy said. House of Fraser had already decided on the basic layout for how the new format would look, he said. The move is the latest plan to revitalise the brand since it was taken over last year for £351.4m by the Baugur-backed consortium, whose members include Scotland’s richest man, Sir Tom Hunter. Following the privatisation, the retailer has started overhauling its image, ditching its prancing-stag emblem for a more contemporary logo, and targeting a more upmarket customer. The group has thrown out 140 underperforming brands and brought in new ones such as Whistles, Jaeger and All Saints. The group now has 61 UK stores and four more in the pipeline. These are at the White City shopping centre in west London, High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, Belfast and Bristol. House of Fraser is in the middle of a battle with its suppliers, following plans to impose a levy of up to 4% to finance a store-refurbishment and rebranding programme. This weekend McCarthy said the move was essential to offset huge increases in the cost of doing business. Source : Times Online, UK

 

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