Four House of Fraser stores– namely Lakeside, Metrocentre, Nottingham and Norwich– will close in early 2019, Sports Direct has just confirmed.
Sports Direct, which rescued the department store chain in August for £90m, said it had been unable to agree “reasonable terms” with landlords to keep the shops trading.
Sports Direct founder and chief executive Mike Ashley 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.”
Meanwhile, the Intu Chapelfield shopping centre in Norwich told the BBC that the HoF outlets will be closing after the shopping centre owner was unable to reach an agreement on rent.
A spokesman for Intu added:”…We have had numerous meetings with Sports Direct including at the highest level to try to agree terms. While we cannot discuss the detail, we have been unable to reach agreement.”
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