House of Fraser
House of Fraser is a British department store chain with 23 locations across the United Kingdom and Ireland, part of Frasers Group. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891, it was known as Fraser & Sons. The company grew steadily during the early 20th century and in 1936 began a period of growth through acquisition which would continue for over forty years. House of Fraser Ltd was incorporated in 1941 and first listed on the London Stock Exchange six years later.
After the Second World War a large number of acquisitions transformed the company into a national chain. Purchases included Scottish Drapery Corporation, Binns, Barkers of Kensington and the Harrods group. Later acquisitions included J J Allen, Dingles, Howells of Cardiff and Army & Navy Stores.
The group was purchased by the Al Fayed family in 1985 for £615 million, beating out Tiny Rowland for control. By 1993, the management of the group were making attempts to purchase the group from the Al Fayeds, and a floatation was agreed, with the group initially trading separately as House of Fraser Holdings with the Fayed group.
The public float happened in 1995, when it was listed in the FTSE Index as House of Fraser plc, with Harrods moved into the private ownership of the Al Fayeds.
In the 1990s, several stores were closed and fifteen stores transferred to a joint venture with British Land Company, which then continued operating under their old name. The former Harrods group store D H Evans on Oxford Street, London was re-branded as House of Fraser in 2001 and became the chain's flagship store.
In 2005, the group acquired Jenners, and Beatties. In 2006, the firm was acquired by a consortium of investors including Icelandic based Landsbanki. An online store was launched in 2007. In 2014, the group was sold to Nanjing Xinjiekou Department Store Co., a leading chain of Chinese department stores for approximately £450 million. In May 2018, the group entered a company voluntary arrangement, and in June the closure of 31 stores was announced. On 10 August 2018, Mike Ashley's Sports Direct chain agreed to buy the business for £90 million after the chain went into administration earlier that day. In 2023, it was announced that the business would re-brand under the Frasers name-plate after a successful trial.
History
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.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 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, 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, Newcastle, Sunderland, Bradford and Leeds 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, Dundee, Inverness, Paisley and Perth.
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 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.