House of Fraser enjoys sales rise

Shoppers' growing appetite for menswear and beauty products helped spur an "improving trend" in sales, UK department store chain House of Fraser said today.

The retailer, which has been privately owned since 2006, said like-for-like sales were up 1.3% in the six weeks to September 5.

This was better than the 0.5% growth seen in the previous three months and a sharp turnaround from the 6.2% fall in the first quarter of the year.

Chief executive John King said sales had exceeded expectations and described the firm's first half performance as "good" despite tough trading conditions.

"Key categories of menswear, accessories and beauty all traded ahead of last year for the first half," he said.

"The sales trend in the home category is also improving and in the last two months has shown growth on the year."

He said the firm had also benefited from store refurbishment activity undertaken over the past two years.

House of Fraser said its four new stores - at the Westfield Centre in London, Bristol, High Wycombe and Belfast - had also performed well.

The retailer said it planned to develop more own brand products and it intends that these will contribute around 30% of its sales mix in the future.

It said there remain "significant opportunities" to develop these so-called "House Brands", such as Linea, Episode and Kenneth Cole New York.

House of Fraser was one of the many well-known UK firms in the portfolio of Icelandic retail investor Baugur, which collapsed earlier this year.

Baugur's 34% stake in the retailer was then put into the hands of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki.

Chairman Don McCarthy said the results were "testament to the considerable progress made over the past three years by the management team in rebuilding the House of Fraser business".

The retailer now has a total of 62 stores employing around 16,000 people, including in its concessions.

House of Fraser was founded in 1849, when partners Hugh Fraser and James Arthur opened a small drapery shop in Glasgow, Scotland.

During the 1970s it expanded rapidly with the acquisitions of drapers across Scotland, Ireland and England and department stores such as Hide & Co in Kingston-upon-Thames and Army & Navy stores.