There wasn’t much festive to cheer to be had at House of Fraser, with reports claiming that sales at the struggling department store chain slumped in the run-up to Christmas.
According to figures by Kantar Worldpanel, as reported by The Sunday Telegraph, House of Fraser recorded a 60% year-on-year crash in sales in the three months to 18 December.
READ: Can Mike Ashley make a success of HMV?
Should the numbers be confirmed, it would deal a massive blow to Ashley’s plan to turn the retailer into the ‘Harrods of the high street’.
The billionaire owner of Sports Direct International PLC (LON:SPD) swooped to House of Fraser’s rescue back in August, buying it out of administration for around £90mln.
In the first two months of ownership, the department store chain burned through £31.5mln, with Ashley footing the bill and advancing cash to worried suppliers who had pulled their stock.
In a bid to bring down costs, the 54-year-old has been at war with “greedy landlords”. Sports Direct agreed renewed terms on 20 stores back in September, while three more – Glasgow, Manchester and Swindon – have also been rescued.
But 10 stores are due to shut shortly, including four in shopping centres owned by Intu Properties PLC (LON:INTU), after the pair failed to reach an agreement.
News of House of Fraser’s sales comes amid reports that Sports Direct is looking at buying collapsed CDs and DVDs retailer HMV.