House of Fraser teases new brand-focused strategy ahead of crunch vote

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 21, 2018

As House of Fraser prepares for one of the most important days in its 170-year history (with its creditors voting on its CVA Friday) the company has released a broad outline of its new product and trade strategy, based on the assumption that the CVA vote will go in its favour.

The company said late Thursday that its new strategy marks “a significant step in the business’s transformation programme.”

So what is it planning? It's said that it wants to ensure “House of Fraser is a destination for customers to shop the brands they love while providing a premium experience for shoppers, both online and in-store.”

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It will “make its core focus to offer the best selection of contemporary brands. It will become more agile in responding to trends and deliver exclusivity through partnerships with popular concessions [and] will invest in trend-spotting and product innovation capabilities alongside its recently launched globally responsive supply chain.”

That's a statement that’s still pretty short on detail, but rumours are emerging that it plans to cull some of its owned brands and that this would affect head office teams in design, buying and merchandising.

David Walker-Smith, Chief Product and Trading Officer, didn't reveal anything along those lines, but he said: “Since joining House of Fraser, I have worked with the team to review our current product offering and what became crystal clear is our customers love brands.

"Customers now want more from their shopping experience and as a business, we need to make sure we are exceeding expectations. I’m really looking forward to embarking on this new chapter for the business and working with both our existing and new partners to bring an exciting proposition to stores and online”.
 
As part of wider cost-management efforts, the company said that it is focusing on areas of growth within the business and wider sector. And it cited Kantar Worldpanel saying that branded products overall are outperforming own-label products in the UK, adding weight to the view that some of its house brands could be for the chop.