DIYWEEK.net

Upholstered furniture and flooring retailer, Sofa Carpet Specialist (SCS Group plc) has announced it will close the 27 outlets it operates within House of Fraser stores after reporting a 52.5% decline in concession sales for the quarter and says the partnership is “no longer beneficial”.

According to SCS’s latest trading update, the House of Fraser concession business accounted for only 2.7% of the group's order intake for the 12 weeks ended 20 October 2018.

Meanwhile, its core SCS business has continued to perform well, with like-for-like order intake up 4.5% for the period. The retailer also posted two year like-for-like order intake growth of 7.4% and said, although it is still early in its financial year, it expects trading to be in line with expectations.

SCS said it is working with affected employees, and is looking to re-deploy them within the wider SCS group business, where possible.

SCS CEO David Knight commented: "I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our colleagues who have worked in our House of Fraser concessions over the past few years for their dedication and hard work. However, given developments in House of Fraser over the last few months, it has become clear that the partnership was no longer beneficial to SCS.  

“We are pleased to announce that we have continued to trade well in the core SCS business in the first 12 weeks of our financial year. We will continue to focus on our successful value offering proposition, coupling this with the excellent service that SCS provides and that our customers know and love.”

House of Fraser was bought out of administration this year by Sports Direct in a £90million deal after what the business described as a challnging six months.Its flagship Oxford Street store, which was originally earmarked for closure, was also saved after the retailer's new owners negotiated revised terms with landlords.