House of Fraser senior management dismissed
House of Fraser owner Mike Ashley has dismissed all the senior management at the store chain.
A statement issued after the London stock market closed last night said: “Following the collapse of House of Fraser on August 10 2018, and subsequent calls for an investigation into the circumstances of that collapse, the company today announces that we have dismissed the former directors and senior management of House of Fraser.”
Mr Ashley, who also owns sports retailer Sports Direct, bought the struggling chain out of administration for £90m in August.
Among those sacked is former chief executive Alex Williamson.
His appointment, in July last year, raised some eyebrows in the industry, given his lack of previous experience in fashion retail.
Reacting to the boardroom clearout today, Richard Lim, of consultancy Retail Economics, said Mr Ashley had taken “drastic action following a series of woeful management decisions, clumsy execution and an outdated perception of the UK market”.
Independent retail analyst Richard Hyman added: “He (Ashley) was always likely to want his own people in there. One might have thought he’d do it in a low key way, avoiding making waves and disruption.
“But he is always unconventional and thus seems like an over-dramatic, heavy handed and unnecessarily negative way of doing it.
“One would have thought a few of them would be worth keeping in order to maintain continuity, at least.”
Last month Mr Ashley revealed he had managed to strike deals with a range of landlords of House of Fraser sites to save at least 15 stores from imminent closure, in a move that has secured 3,500 jobs.
These included the Birkenhead, Altrincham, and Carlisle outlets.
When Mr Ashley acquired House of Fraser in August he said he hoped to save around 47 of their 59 outlets, including its flagship site on Manchester’s Deansgate.
