Sports Direct denies House of Fraser exit
Sports Direct has hit back at what it is calling an “unbelievable level of misreporting” after a Sunday newspaper alleged that it could close its House of Fraser stores.
The Sunday Telegraph had reported that fresh papers from House of Fraser’s administrators EY showed that the Shirebrook firm was leaving House of Fraser stores empty, while running the lease down on others – something that Mike Ashley’s company has strongly denied.
The former House of Fraser portfolio includes the store in Deansgate, Manchester, which was rescued from closure after a deal was struck with the landlords.
House of Fraser
In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, Sports Direct said: “The Telegraph article refers to ‘fresh papers from administrators EY’, which is the progress report for the administration of HFL Realisations Limited (formerly House of Fraser Limited, which went into administration in 2018).
This refers to a number of leases being surrendered for £nil and a small number of property leases remaining to be dealt with. Please note that the surrenders relate to the leases between the landlords and the old House of Fraser company and have nothing to do with the Sports Direct Group including the new House of Fraser Limited.”
Sports Direct says it has entered into new leases on the majority of House of Fraser stores, adding that it continues to work with landlords across the whole of the remaining House of Fraser estate.
The statement continued: “As a result of this erroneous misreading of the administrators report from EY, staff across the HoF group have today woken up to a false sense of job insecurity. Sports Direct is working rapidly on our ongoing investment programme with the HoF brand and it is therefore totally incorrect to assume that there will be large numbers of store closures in the new year. We are taking legal advice with regards to this unbelievable level of misreporting.”
Earlier this year, Ashley described House of Fraser’s decline as “nothing short of terminal”.
