Frasers will slim department stores and buy more shopping centres

House of Fraser could close more stores, after declaring “the department store globally is broken”. Michael Murray, chief executive of Mike Ashley’s retail empire Frasers, which also owns Sports Direct, the designer street fashion chain Flannels and a plethora of brands from Jack Wills to Evans Cycles, said its department store portfolio was “continually under review” and some outlets were “still too big”. “We have to find solutions for the excess space,” he said. House of Fraser has already almost halved in size from 59 stores to 31 since it was bought out of administration by Ashley in August 2018. It closed eight stores in the past year. Murray said the historic average store size of 150,000 sq ft or larger was now “too big”. The group now wants stores of about 50,000 sq ft or smaller. Murray’s comments came as Frasers reported pretax profit for the group had almost doubled to £660m after sales rose 16% to £5.6bn in the year to 30 April. Meanwhile, Frasers Group is hunting for more shopping centres, following its recent purchase of malls in Luton for £58m and Dundee for £30m. It is reportedly bidding for the Junction 32 shopping outlet on the outskirts of Leeds, near Castleford. Murray said Frasers Group believes there are now good opportunities for bargains, which can help the company improve its presence at key destinations. The GuardianThe Telegraph (£)