House of Fraser invests £150 million in expansion

The department store that traces its origins back to Glasgow, has announced that they will be investing in a £150million pound expansion.

Chief executive of House of Fraser, John King said: “As a business, we are committing £150m of investment in the UK over the next four years to further improve the shopping experience for our customers, through better store environments and developments to our online platform.”

The store chain which was recently bought by Nanjing based Sanpower for £480 million said like for like sales were up 4.2% in six months, with sales strengthening in the second quarter. Sales have grown within the company by 29pc during the six month period and now account for 14.2pc of total sales for the business. House of Fraser believes that the rise of sales led to adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation increasing 15pc to £8.6m.

The retailer will see big changes to the company in the next four years as they use this expansion to primarily focus on store revamps and developing its online operations. They will also use this expansion to target shopping experience for their customers

House of Fraser is confident that the department store will become a global store on the high street, serving as a bridge for premium brands between China and Europe. In the meantime House of Fraser has said it does not expect to see any changes to their current 6,800 staff along with 13,000 concession employees – however with the expansion of more UK stores in the near future the company will be opening up many retail opportunities.

The future investment offers a strong platform for international expansion of the store in locations such as Abu Dhabi.