Nottingham’s House of Fraser department store to close next year

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Nottingham's branch of House of Fraser, part of the Victoria Centre. (Photo: Google)

Nottingham’s branch of House of Fraser will shut in 2019 following the chain’s takeover by Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct group.

The company bought the department store chain in August and initially cancelled a closure programme proposed by the previous management.

Ashley had said he wanted to keep most of the stores in the chain open and opened talks with landlords across the country over rent.

But on Wednesday the chain announced it is closing four shops across the country, including the well-known multi-storey branch in Nottingham’s Victoria Centre.

A statement from House of Fraser said: “We had various meetings with the landlord, Intu Properties plc, and adopted a flexible approach.

“Despite our best efforts we have been unable to agree reasonable terms for these stores to continue trading. Sadly, we are now in consultation with staff about the fact these stores face closure. We hope other institutional landlords will continue to work with us in order to save stores and jobs.

Ashley added in the statement: “We had multiple meetings with Intu, but we were no further forward after 14 weeks. Unfortunately, these stores now face closing in the New Year.”

It was not immediately clear how many jobs would be lost by the closure. The unit, which also has a frontage on Mansfield Road, is one of the largest single tenant spaces inside the centre and is considered a flagship site.

Nigel Wheatley, general manager for intu Victoria Centre said: “We have been advised today that the House of Fraser will be closing next year as part of their national stores review. We have had a number of meetings with Sports Direct to try to agree terms. While we cannot discuss the detail, we have been unable to reach an agreement.

“There’s a lot going on at the centre and our plans mean that we have a number of exciting new brands either now open or currently in negotiations to take their first stores at intu Victoria Centre whilst others are looking at their existing stores to make sure they are making the most of their presence in the centre. We’re sure that this investment will create new jobs.

“We also believe there is a real opportunity to reuse this space for new and exciting alternatives. We have a strong track record of doing just that with the great success of Nottingham Street Food Club and Meetspace VR which opened last month and have some great ideas on the table including other big retail brands but also non-traditional shopping centre uses.

“Our teams continually look at options that will create the right mix of retail and leisure to meet the needs of our customers, giving them a great experience and even more reasons to smile.”

 

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