UK department store House of Fraser’s landlord serves notice on retail tycoon Mike Ashley to leave
- The retail tycoon said he hoped to save about 80 per cent of House of Fraser’s 59 stores across the UK
Doubts are growing about the number of House of Fraser department stores Mike Ashley will keep open as landlords lose patience with him paying no rent while he decides what to do with the spaces.
The retail tycoon said he hoped to save about 80 per cent of House of Fraser’s 59 stores across the UK and turn the chain into the “Harrods of the high street” after it was bought out of administration for £90 million last August by his leisurewear business Sports Direct.
But the landlord of Rackhams in Altrincham, part of the House of Fraser empire, has served Ashley a notice to leave the premises and said others could now follow suit.
M&M Asset Management, which owns the Stamford Quarter shopping centre that includes the store, agreed to accept no rent for a year under a short-term lease, one of dozens of similar contracts thought to expire in September.
Iain Minto, M&M’s shopping centre director, said the company could not give Ashley any more time to decide on the site’s future and had decided instead to redevelop it as flats and smaller residential units.