Harvey Nichols’ Birmingham store to close in January

Harvey Nichols’ Birmingham store is to close in January, with the loss of at least 60 jobs, while its Leeds and Bristol outlets will be converted to the Flannels brand in a shake-up under Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group.

The owner of Sports Direct bought the department store chain, which is headquartered at its site in London’s Knightsbridge, for £43m on the day it was put into administration in mid August.

That deal kept on about 1,000 of the group’s 1,200 jobs and six UK stores. Harvey Nichols’ Oxo Tower restaurant was sold to a separate buyer, saving 130 jobs.

The chain’s branches in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester and Bristol are accompanied by outlets in Riyadh, Dubai, Doha, Kuwait and two in Hong Kong. A further store in Dublin was closed by administrators in September.

The Harvey Nichols Group owed about £100m to unsecured creditors at the time of its administration, including dozens of brands from Canada Goose to Victoria Beckham.

Ashley previously said he would keep Harvey Nichols’ Knightsbridge and Edinburgh stores, but rebrand the four other UK stores – in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Bristol – as House of Fraser or Flannels.

It has now emerged that Frasers plans to close Birmingham, which opened 25 years ago, with staff informed earlier this week, as first reported by the fashion trade journal Drapers. Frasers will rebrand Leeds and Bristol to Flannels, while the future for the Manchester, Edinburgh and London Harvey Nichols stores is unclear.

Michael Murray, the chief executive of Frasers Group, recently said in a statement about the group’s luxury division: “Our ambition is clear: to continue scaling Frasers Group Luxury globally through organic expansion, acquisitions and strategic investments, creating long-term value for our brand partners, customers and the group.”

Ashley has bought a series of struggling premium brands in recent years after starting out with a single sports shop.

Frasers bought the House of Fraser department store chain out of administration in 2018 and has since closed about 40 of its 60 stores. It has been building its interests in luxury fashion with the Flannels chain and large stakes in brands such as the British handbag maker Mulberry.

The group recently celebrated lifting its stake in the German label Hugo Boss to 48%, just short of taking full control, despite opposition from the company’s board.

Frasers did not respond to a request for comment.