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Hundreds face jobs axe as House of Fraser announces store closures

Hundreds of shop workers face losing their jobs in the New Year after Beatties owner House of Fraser announced it was closing its four stores at shopping centres run by Intu.

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Four more House of Fraser stores face closure

The stores facing closure are at Lakeside in Essex, the Metrocentre in Gateshead, Norwich and Nottingham.

House of Fraser said it had been unable to strike a deal with Intu, which also owns the Merry Hill shopping centre and Trafford centre in Manchester, and said it made the announcement 'with regret'.

The department store operator has so far secured the future of around half of House of Fraser's 59 stores since it was bought out of administration by tracksuit tycoon Mike Ashley's Sports Direct company for £90 million three months ago.

After a local campaign House of Fraser has reprieved the historic Beatties store in Wolverhampton city centre, which faced closure early next year. It has also struck deals with the landlords of the former Rackhams store in Birmingham and the House of Fraser store in Telford. But the Shrewsbury branch is set for closure.

The company has not responded to suggestions that the reprieve deals with landlords are only for an initial 12 months while the stores prove they are still viable and potentially profitable.

House of Fraser said in a statement: "We had various meetings with the landlord, Intu Properties plc, and adopted a flexible approach.

"Despite our best efforts we have been unable to agree reasonable terms for these stores to continue trading.

"Sadly, we are now in consultation with staff about the fact these stores face closure. We hope other institutional landlords will continue to work with us in order to save stores and jobs."

Mike Ashley, who also owns Newcastle United, added: “We had multiple meetings with Intu, but we were no further forward after 14 weeks. Unfortunately, these stores now face closing in the New Year.

"I urge other institutional landlords to be more proactive to help save the HoF stores in their schemes.”

In response, an Intu spokesperson said: "We have had numerous meetings with SportsDirect including at the highest level to try to agree terms. While we cannot discuss the detail, we have been unable to reach agreement.

"We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to re-engineer and re-let this underperforming space to new and exciting alternatives. We have a strong track record of re-purposing space as with the example of the former Sainsbury unit at intu Merry Hill, now one of Next’s largest stores in the UK. Ideas on the table include not only other large-scale retailers but also non-traditional shopping centre uses.

"Of the four stores, two are city centre locations and two are super-regionals, each offering unique opportunities. Our teams are looking at bespoke solutions that will create the right tenant mix to meet the needs of the local market, attracting more customers and ultimately benefitting all our tenants."