Department store House of Fraser has posted encouraging results for its third quarter of trading, with like-for-like sales rising by 4.6 per cent in comparison to the same period last year.
Despite being the smallest of its UK department store rivals – John Lewis, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer – House of Fraser appears to be holding its own against the competitive set, especially as it continues to strengthen its multichannel position, observes Sophie McCarthy, consultant at Conlumino.
“One of the strengths of House of Fraser’s proposition has been its ability to create distinct, sub-branded ranges with considerable brand equity, meaning that they can credibly sit alongside, and compete with, well-known household brands. As evidence of this, supermarket giant Tesco has chosen to retail House of Fraser brands such as Biba and Linea within its homewares ranges via its online third party marketplace.
“This season saw House of Fraser launch Gray & Willow, a new own label brand that sits across womenswear, fashion accessories and home and delivers casual, Scandinavian style premium products. This has likely contributed to the reported growth across its house brands, as well as concessions and branded categories.”
House of Fraser is investing in refurbishing its store network as a means to achieve growth, rather than aggressively pursue new space.
“This strategy seems to be reaping rewards,” observes McCarthy. “Recently refurbished stores in Bath, Lincoln and Huddersfield all reported double digit growth following their refreshes, whilst its Metro Centre, City, Bluewater and Leeds outlets were all refurbished during the same period.”
Online sales were up 27.7 per cent on the same period last year. Its latest app is both innovative and customer focused, allowing shoppers to check stock availability, browse editorial content and shop via helpfully themed pages, such as its ‘party shop’.
“Despite this quarter’s results indicating a slight slowdown in performance from first half trading, overall House of Fraser is on track to deliver a solid set of full year figures. The rise in pre-tax profit to £2.0 million for the quarter indicates sales growth has not been at the expense of profit management, leaving it in a good position as the market ramps up for Christmas trading,” concludes McCarthy.
