Department store chain Fenwick posts losses for seventh year

Department store chain Fenwick, which closed its landmark store on London's Bond Avenue in February, has recorded its seventh year of losses due to falling sales.

The family group, which has eight department stores led by Newcastle, said sales fell 3% to £299 million in the year to January and almost halved losses to £38 million.

Holders of preference shares in the business received a £3m dividend despite continuing losses, roughly in line with the previous year.

“Trading was challenging,” the directors said in accounts presented to Firms Home this week. They said Fenwick faces “significant and increasing competition from online retailers”, while consumer confidence and spending had been hit by a “volatile environment” caused by higher energy and raw material costs and the increase in interest rates.

Fenwick and other department stores, including Selfridges and Home of Fraser, are struggling to cope with the rise of online shopping, which allows consumers to research and buy branded products from home. The rise of luxury specialists such as Farfetch and Web a Porter has been combined with a squeeze on extra money for ambitious buyers due to rising interest rates and energy bills.

Fenwick, founded in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1882 by John James Fenwick, announced in 2022 that it would close its Bond Avenue store to invest in its other stores, much to the dismay of regular customers who spoke to the Guardian before the store closed. doors in February of this year.

The update on Fenwick's financial performance comes as the retailer returns to search for its third CEO since 2018.

Former long-serving Harrods executive Nigel Blow was set to become Fenwick boss this month but did not take up the role amid controversy over the late Knightsbridge department store owner's alleged behavior.

Blow worked at Harrods for more than 14 years, from 1992 to 2007, when the retailer was owned by Mohamed Al Fayed. Al Fayed was the subject of a recent BBC documentary based on the accounts of more than 20 women who said he had sexually assaulted them.

Blow has said he had no knowledge of Al Fayed's abuse of the women during their stay at Harrods.

He was to replace John Edgar, a former Selfridges and Harrods executive, who served for almost five years after replacing former Argos executive Robbie Feather, the group's first non-acquainted boss who was in the role for less than two years. .