House of Fraser suppliers waiting on 'fate' of department store

House of Fraser has revealed it must find new funding by Monday August 20, when payments to its stores’ concessions need to be paid.

Such an outcome from the discussions is expected before then, and House of Fraser has said all suppliers are being paid.

House of Fraser currently employs 17,500 people, with 6,000 directly and 11,500 concession staff.

Around 6,000 jobs - 2,000 from House of Fraser and 4,000 brand and concession roles - are to be lost due to restructuring plans announced in June to close 31 of its 59 shops.

Speaking to the BBC about the topic, a spokesperson for House of Fraser said: “Suppliers have and are being paid as per their terms and conditions”.

Nigel Lugg, group executive chairman of Prominent Europe, which supplies Chester Barrie menswear to House of Fraser, said the company was still supplying clothes, and if the company went into liquidation it would receive between 3p and 4p in the pound of what Lugg is owed.

House of Fraser’s Chinese owners Nanjing Cenbest - also known as Nanjing Xinjiekou - had agreed to sell a 51 per cent stake to the Chinese owner of Hamley’s, C.banner.

However, earlier this month, C.banner pulled out of the deal to take the stake in the 169-year-old department store chain, leaving it and its creditors to seek alternative sources of finance.

The talks are “focused on concluding as quickly as possible to enable receipt of an investment required by no later than August 20, 2018”.

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