Saiprojects: August 2018

The departmental store has finally lost its battle , House of Fraser used to be my go to store back in the early 2000's in school; I remember working their as a sales assistant for a few months in (Guerlain) and also at some point I even thought of getting their store card as I was pretty much there every weekend. But when the news broke at the early hours of this morning, it not only broke my heart that majority of their stores will be closing; its the fact that almost over 17,500 people will be out of work.

In a statement, it said that talks with investors and creditors had "not concluded in a solvent solution".

The internet

New technology has had a disruptive influence on the High Street in general, with digital retailers such as Amazon dealing a savage blow to traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers.

But House of Fraser was slow to grasp the extent of the change, failing to respond quickly enough with its own internet offer.

As far back as 2004, (possibly when I worked there lol) the chain was being described by the Interactive Media in Retail Group, a trade body, as one of the "online laggards" that "failed to embrace internet trading opportunities".

It wasn't until last year that it announced a major upgrade of its online platform. By then, sales through the internet had grown to 20% of its business.

However, the £25m that it spent on its digital revamp was just half the amount that online retailer Asos invested in technology in the same year.

Meanwhile, John Lewis outstripped them both with a whopping £500m investment in e-commerce.

No USP

Despite the rise of the internet, traditional department stores are not automatically doomed. But people do need a reason to visit them, whether physically or virtually.

Over the years, House of Fraser has gobbled up lots of smaller department store concerns, such as Army & Navy, Dickins & Jones and DH Evans.

In the process, it did a lot to kill off the diversity of High Streets up and down the UK, while failing to replace those defunct brands with a distinctive identity of its own.

As a result, the average House of Fraser store was just that - average. With no unique selling point of its own, it lacked the pulling power it needed to fend off rivals.

Worse still, a lot of the goods sold within were not even House of Fraser's: they were being hawked by more than 600 third-party concession owners. The chain's own brand was taking a back seat.

Too many stores

When it embarked on its rescue plan, House of Fraser had 59 department stores in the UK.

That's broadly comparable with John Lewis and a lot less than Debenhams, but those two retailers have been more successful than House of Fraser at reinventing themselves and staying relevant in a crowded marketplace.

Retail analysts reckon the chain should have slimmed down its portfolio a long time ago. Instead, it spent years acquiring more stores, often with expensive legacy lease arrangements.

Management and ownership woes

The last 15 years have been a turbulent era for the group: it changed hands twice and became a bid target a number of times.

Amid all the takeovers and fears of takeovers, it was never clear what House of Fraser's long-term strategy was.

The uncertainty began in 2003, when Scottish billionaire Tom Hunter launched an unsuccessful hostile bid.

Other attempted takeovers ensued until in 2006, it was sold to a consortium led by Iceland's Baugur for £351m.

There was yet more takeover talk in 2013, this time with French department store Galeries Lafayette.

A year later, House of Fraser was sold to Chinese department store group Nanjing Xinjiekou, part of Sanpower, in a deal valued at about £480m.

More recently, there's been much talk of a "revolving door" syndrome blighting the chain's management.

When current chief executive Alex Williamson was hired in July last year after nine years at sporting firm Goodwood, his lack of retail experience raised eyebrows.

Mr Williamson's predecessor, Nigel Oddy, had been in the job for less than two years when he resigned in November 2016, leaving the firm rudderless just before the crucial Christmas trading period.

No white knight in the end

It was hoped that the company would be rescued by another Chinese company, C.banner, owner of toy store Hamleys. But the deal fell through at the last minute, sealing House of Fraser's fate.

As it turned out, C.banner itself was not robust enough to save the ageing High Street stalwart.

The Hong Kong-listed firm had planned to fund the deal by issuing new shares. But when its share price fell 70% in two months, it was forced to pull the share placing, which it said had become "impracticable and inadvisable"- source bbc.co.uk

7 comments

Good morning Foodies and a very happy International Beer Day to you. Today is a day celebrated on every first Friday of every August (today being 3rd August) and was founded in 2007 in Santa Cruz, California by Jesse Avshalomov. Since its inception, International Beer Day has grown from a small localized event in the western United States into a worldwide celebration spanning 207 cities, 80 countries and 6 continents. Specifically, International Beer Day has three declared purposes.

To gather with friends and enjoy the taste of beer.
To celebrate those responsible for brewing and serving beer.
To unite the world under the banner of beer, by celebrating the beers of all nations together on a single day (source wiki.com)

So how can you celebrate today???

Participants are encouraged to give one another the 'gift of beer' by buying each other drinks, and to express gratitude to brewers, bartenders, and other beer technicians. In the international spirit of the holiday, it is also suggested that participants step out of their domestic/locally brewed comfort zone and sample a beer from another culture which seems very interesting so I might be buying a couple of people some pints today just to celebrate :-)

International Beer Day began as a celebration at the founders’ local bar, but has since expanded to become a worldwide event. Celebrations are planned throughout the United States as well as in Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, England, France, Greece, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Vanuatu, and Venezuela.

Popular forms of International Beer Day Events include: Tapping of new or rare beers, all-day happy hours, beer flights, trivia nights, binge drinking and other games (such as beer pong), beer/food pairings and beer gear giveaways. (source wiki.com)

7 comments

5 comments

Saiprojects

The internet

No USP

Too many stores

Management and ownership woes

No white knight in the end

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