House of Fraser (HoF) said it will continue to open new stores as it unveiled a 4% fall in like-for-like sales in the first six weeks of its financial year.
The department store group – which is in talks to buy Jenners, the Edinburgh retailer – said it would look to add 20 stores in the next ten years, in towns such as York and Cambridge.
HoF, which has 50 stores, confirmed that it has decided against buying some Allders sites that it had looked at, because it considered them too expensive. For the year to the end of January, the group has just reported that sales fell by 6.3% because of store closures and a reporting period a week shorter.
References: Financial Times 19/03/05 page 27, The Daily Telegraph 1903/05 page 33, page 33 (Questor), The Times 1903/05 page 58 (Need to Know), The Independent 19/03/05 page 49 (Investment Column)
