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The story
The early years
The company was founded by Hugh Fraser and James Arthur in 1849 as a small drapery shop on the corner of Argyle Street and Buchanan Street in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, trading as Arthur and Fraser. Hugh Fraser had been apprenticed to Stewart & McDonald Ltd, a Glasgow drapery warehouse where he eventually rose to the position of warehouse manager. It was from here that he brought many of his new company's initial customers. James Arthur also owned a retail drapery business in Paisley, a Greater Glasgow suburb: he appointed a manager to oversee the Paisley business while he focused on his new business.
The company established a wholesale trade in adjoining premises in Argyle Street. In 1856 the wholesale business moved to a larger site in Miller Street, Glasgow, and started to trade under the name Arthur & Co. The retail side of the business expanded into the vacant buildings left by the wholesale side.
During the late 1850s and early 1860s, the retail business was run by a professional manager – first Thomas Kirkpatrick and then Alexander McLaren. In 1865 the partnership between the partners was dissolved and Fraser assumed control of the retail business leaving Arthur with the wholesale business. In 1865 McLaren joined the retail business and the name was changed to Fraser & McLaren.
Fraser & Sons
When the first Hugh Fraser died in 1873, his three eldest sons, James, John and Hugh, acquired stakes in the business. James and John Fraser were initially directors in the business and employed Alexander McLaren and later John Towers to manage it for them. In 1891 Hugh also joined the partnership which by then was called Fraser & Sons.
In 1879, the current flagship store on Oxford Street in London was opened by Dan Harries Evans, a 23-year-old from Whitemill in Carmarthenshire, Wales who had previously been apprenticed to a draper in Forest Hamlet near Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. He moved to London in 1878 to set up his own business in Westminster Bridge Road. The store traded under the D H Evans name until 2001.
By 1900, Hugh Fraser II was in charge: he incorporated the business as Fraser & Sons Ltd in 1909 and introduced the famous stag's head motif.
After Hugh Fraser II died in 1927, his son Hugh Fraser III, an accountant, became chairman of the business. He opened new departments, enlarged the tearoom, opened a restaurant and also began to look at possible acquisitions. In 1936 he purchased Arnott & Co Ltd and its neighbour Robert Simpson & Sons Ltd in nearby Argyle Street, merging the companies to help improve trade. In 1948 the company, now named House of Fraser, was first listed on the London Stock Exchange.
1950s to 1970s
In 1951, the Company purchased McDonald's Ltd, and with it a branch in Harrogate. Fraser then purchased the Scottish Drapery Corporation in 1952, followed by the Sunderland based Binns group of stores in 1953.
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Fraser sold the property sites to insurance companies, leasing them back for long terms at advantageous rates. This enabled the release of capital for the purchase of new premises and the modernisation of existing stores. In 1957, the Kensington store group of John Barker & Co Ltd was acquired and in 1959 Harrods and Dickins & Jones also joined the Group.
Sir Hugh Fraser succeeded his father as chairman of the company when his father died in 1966. Sir Hugh resumed the expansion of the company in 1969 with the takeover of J. J. Allen Ltd, a Bournemouth based group, also including Colsons of Exeter and Brights of Bristol and Bournemouth.
During the 1970s, the House of Fraser Group acquired more companies including T. Baird & Sons Ltd of Scotland, Switzer & Co. Ltd of Dublin, Ireland, and E. Dingle & Co. Ltd, Chiesmans Ltd, Hide & Co and the Army & Navy Stores in southern England, as well as a number of independent stores, totaling over fifty stores during the decade. In 1973, the House of Fraser Group was considering merging with the British pharmacy company Boots, and was even subject to a written answer in the House of Commons. The government decided to block the proposed merger in 1974.
1980–1985
In 1981, Roland Smith succeeded Sir Hugh Fraser as chairman. A takeover bid by Lonrho was referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission and declared to be contrary to the public interest. Four new stores opened between 1980 and 1984, including D H Evans in Wood Green, North London in 1980, Dickins & Jones in Milton Keynes in 1981, Frasers in Perth in April 1984, and Army & Navy in Epsom, Surrey in May 1984.
The company, by then House of Fraser PLC, diversified into sports goods under the name of Astral Sports and Leisure (subsequently sold to Sears plc, owned Olympus Sport division) and into funerals with Wylie & Lochhead. It also launched the 'You' range of cosmetics and jewellery shops, and in 1985 acquired Turnbull & Asser Holdings Ltd, shirt makers of Jermyn Street, London and Kurt Geiger Holdings Ltd, shoe retailers. Other developments during the 1980s included the introduction of "Lifestyle" merchandise ranges and a huge investment in store refurbishment nationwide. In 1983 the Company introduced the Frasercard (later renamed Recognition), valid at all stores, and administered from a central facility based in Swindon.
1985–2006: Al Fayed ownership
In 1985, the Al Fayed family bought the business for £615 million. The Al Fayeds supported the continuing expansion of the company and replaced the stag's head logo with a stag leaping from a green triangle with shop signs of this period using a double-layered sans-serif typeface. In 1988, a five-year strategic business plan was announced which saw a rationalisation of stores. Small branches were to be relinquished and replaced with larger units.
In September 1990, two new department stores were opened, a House of Fraser in the Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield, and Schofields in Leeds. In 1991, a new House of Fraser store was opened at the Lakeside Shopping Centre in West Thurrock, Essex.
In 1994, before House of Fraser PLC was relisted on the London Stock Exchange, Harrods was moved out of the Group so that it could remain under the private ownership of the Al Fayed family. John Coleman, who was appointed chief executive of the House of Fraser Group in 1996, launched the Linea brand in 1997, along with Platinum and Fraser the following year. The House of Fraser logo was revised in 1996 with the leaping stag now going over an "F" shadow and shop signs using a serif typeface. There were many store closures in this period which included the closure or selling off of branches in locations including Sheffield (House of Fraser), Newcastle (Binns), Sunderland (Binns), Bradford (Rackhams) and Leeds (Schofields which had closed only six years after opening although House of Fraser continued to have a presence with their Rackhams (now House of Fraser store) in the city) with the loss of around 1,000 jobs.
House of Fraser set up BL Fraser, a 50–50 joint venture with the British Land Company, in 1999 to buy 15 House of Fraser stores that would continue to be operated by House of Fraser. The Company added to its private-label brands in 2000 with House of Fraser womenswear, The Collection menswear, and a Linea Home.
In 2003, Tom Hunter put forward a hostile bid for the Group, with the possible intention to merge with Allders, another department store in which he had shareholdings. In addition, there was a large reduction in the number of House of Fraser stores in Scotland which included the sell off or closure of branches in Aberdeen (Frasers), Dundee (Arnotts), Inverness (Frasers), Paisley (Arnotts) and Perth (Frasers).
In 2005, the House of Fraser acquired the four Jenners department stores in April for £46m, and Beatties, a mainly Midlands based department store chain of 12 sites, for £69.3m in the summer of 2005. In addition to buying companies, House of Fraser continued its own development programme and opened several more stores including its first store outside the UK (since the disposal of the Switzer business in Ireland in 1991) in Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin, Ireland. as well as stores in Maidstone and Norwich.
In 2006, the Company consolidated its portfolio by closing the 135-year-old Barkers business in Kensington High Street on 2 January 2006. and on 14 January 2006, closed its Dickins & Jones store in London's Regent Street following a substantial rent increase. In addition, the Company closed its Birmingham Beatties store in January 2006 (although retained the House of Fraser store in Birmingham).
2006–2014: Highland Group Holdings
In February 2006, the Group announced that it had received a preliminary bid approach valuing it at £300 million and, in August 2006, the House of Fraser confirmed a takeover approach from the Highland consortium who acquired the company for £351.4 million in November 2006. Highland Group Holdings Limited was 35% owned by Landsbanki. As part of the Highland takeover all brand names for their stores, including most of the Beatties branches, would be replaced with the House of Fraser name (with the exception of Jenners) with the stag logo axed and a new sans-serif typeface used on shop signs.
In September 2007, House of Fraser launched its online store.
The company had four major openings in 2008, including its first store in Northern Ireland in the newly built Victoria Square Shopping Centre, Belfast in March. At 120,000 sq ft (11,000 m2) it was the largest store that House of Fraser had opened (as opposed to taken over) in the UK. Also in March 2008, the Company opened a 95,000 sq ft (8,800 m2) store in High Wycombe. On 25 September 2008 the Company opened a 100,000 sq ft (9,300 m2) store in the Cabot Circus development in Bristol, and a branch in Westfield London, a new 70,000 sq ft (6,500 m2) store, on 30 October 2008.
House of Fraser launched the HouseofFraser.com "Buy & Collect" concept shop in October 2011 with its first location in Aberdeen. A further site, in Liverpool, opened in 2012. These small shops were equipped with computer terminals to allow customers to order from the House of Fraser website. Both shops had closed by the summer of 2016.
In December 2013, talks to takeover House of Fraser were held by French department store Galeries Lafayette with House of Fraser also exploring a floating on the London Stock Exchange once more in the summer of 2014 if the takeover was to be abandoned.
2014–2018: Sanpower Group ownership
In April 2014, it was reported by BBC News that House of Fraser would be sold to Chinese conglomerate Sanpower Group, who would obtain 89% share in the company which would value the business at about £450 million. Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store Co will buy an 89% stake in Highland Group Holdings Ltd, which owns House of Fraser. The purchase was worth £450 million. Sanpower Group is a 22 per cent shareholder of the Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store Co. On 2 September 2014. Don McCarthy, retiring Executive Chairman of House of Fraser, announced the completion of the sale of 100% of the preferred ordinary shares and B ordinary shares, and approximately 89% of the A ordinary shares and preference shares of Highland Group Holdings Ltd, to Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store Co, a leading chain of Chinese department stores and part of the Sanpower Group, for an enterprise value of approximately £480 million.
In 2017, a new department store opened at the Rushden Lakes development in Rushden, Northamptonshire. The closure of House of Fraser Outlet in Leicester also took place during the year and a further closure, in Aylesbury, was announced for 2018, however, this never materialised following the acquisition by Sports Direct International. A new store in Chester was announced in February 2017 with construction due to start in mid-2018. It was announced later in 2018 that House of Fraser had pulled out of these plans due to their financial issues.
2018: Administration
On 2 May 2018, the company announced that it was to be entering into a conditional sale of a controlling stake in the firm to Nanjing Cenbest (another Sanpower Group subsidiary) to Hamleys owner C.banner, another Chinese firm. A condition of the sale that the company streamline its existing store portfolio and cost base was set out. The intention to launch a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) was announced on the same day. However, C.banner later pulled out.
On 7 June 2018, the company announced that it would close 31 of its 58 UK stores:
Altrincham • Aylesbury • Birkenhead • Birmingham • Bournemouth • Camberley • Cardiff • Carlisle • Chichester • Cirencester • Cwmbran • Darlington • Doncaster • Edinburgh Frasers • Epsom • Grimsby • High Wycombe • Hull • Leamington Spa • Lincoln • London Oxford Street • London King William Street • Middlesbrough • Milton Keynes • Plymouth • Shrewsbury • Skipton • Swindon • Telford • Wolverhampton • Worcester
This included the flagship Oxford Street branch and the largest store, Birmingham, to be closed by January 2019. Richard Lim of Retail Economics said that it remained "hard to know with any certainty just what will happen next at House of Fraser" but that without any external funding within a matter of weeks it would inevitably fall into administration. Before the intended closures the company employed 6,000 people directly, with another 11,500 employed through concessions. The subsequent administration of the business meant the CVA and associated plans for restructuring (including the previously announced store closures) came to an abrupt end.
2018–present: Under Frasers Group
On 10 August 2018, House of Fraser entered administration. Later that day Sports Direct International agreed to buy the business' assets (brand, stock, stores) for £90 million in cash on a pre-packaged insolvency basis. Soon after the acquisition many store closures were announced however after months of negotiations almost all were saved. Despite most assets being saved, its corporate identity, having over £400m worth of debt, was not part of the deal.
House of Fraser purchased its Glasgow store building for £95 million in October 2018 and the company pledged to restore it and turn it into the 'Harrods of the north'.
It was reported in May 2019 that seven House of Fraser stores were going to be rebranded into the new 'Frasers' nameplate, a new upmarket chain by the brand (at the time only the Glasgow flagship operated co-branded under the Frasers name).
In July 2019 Sports Direct International expressed regret over its purchase of House of Fraser and problems at the company were described as "nothing short of terminal"; it was also announced that future store closures were planned. Mike Ashley (CEO of Sports Direct) attributed the collapse of HoF to the "incompetence of previous management".
Sports Direct International was rebranded to Frasers Group in December 2019. The interim results in December showed signs of recovery.
The first Frasers store opened on 17 October 2021 at Mander Centre in Wolverhampton.
In November 2021 HoF was given an eviction notice by their Oxford Street store's landlord with plans for the building to be redeveloped into leisure, office and retail spaces. The store was closed in January 2022.
By July 2023 House of Fraser stores had almost halved in number from fifty-nine in August 2018 to just thirty-one locations.
Michael Murray (Frasers Group CEO) confirmed in October 2023 that over time all remaining House of Fraser stores would convert to Frasers or would close.
The House of Fraser app, website and all social media were rebranded in August 2024 to Frasers.
From Wikipedia’s article on House of Fraser, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5