Frasers Group has hit again at criticism over its acquisition techniques, insisting that its strategy to purchasing struggling retailers is about preservation, not exploitation.
The Mike Ashley-founded retail large, which owns Sports activities Direct, Home of Fraser and Flannels, has confronted rising scrutiny for buying failing companies solely to position them into administration shortly afterwards. Critics argue this technique quantities to asset-stripping – shedding liabilities like leases and employees whereas salvaging model names and IP.
However Chris Wootton, Chief Monetary Officer of Frasers Group, dismissed such claims as “unfair”. Chatting with The Occasions, he stated: “Loads of what we purchase could be very, very distressed companies which are bankrupt”.
He added: “With out us saving them there needs to be efficiencies discovered as a result of … that’s why they went out of business within the first place. We really feel we will flip these companies round and make them profitable by bringing them into the Frasers Group ecosystem. We’re superb at it and we’ve accomplished it a number of, a number of occasions.”
Chris Wootton, CFO at Frasers Group
Frasers Group has constructed its empire by snapping up distressed retailers at low costs, together with Jack Wills and Missguided. Many of those acquisitions have been adopted by restructuring or liquidation, sparking questions across the group’s long-term intentions.
Just lately, the retail large sparked controversy over its administration of MatchesFashion. Frasers acquired the posh e-tailer in a pre-pack deal final April for £19 million, only one month after the enterprise entered administration. The deal included Matches’ model identify and mental property however excluded £80 million of inventory and 250 workers.
Nick Beighton, Matches’ former CEO, described the transfer as “pointless” and claimed the enterprise might have been revived. The deal drew backlash from manufacturers, collectors and former employees.
Wootton defended the choice: “Matches was a massively loss-making enterprise [and it] went out of business. We went in with our eyes open that it was going to be troublesome to show round and it proved to be. It wasn’t like we went in with our eyes closed. We knew what would occur and in the end we took a really fast choice to place it again into administration as a result of we didn’t really feel we might, you already know, flip it round efficiently.”
Regardless of the criticism, Frasers reveals no indicators of slowing its acquisition spree. Wootton confirmed the group is “always the place we will develop”, with additional offers doubtless on the horizon.
This comes simply days after Frasers revealed it had delivered one other yr of file progress for the 52 weeks ending 27 April 2025, regardless of a decline in income.
The corporate reported an APBT of £560.2 million, up 2.8%, because it continued to construct “a broader platform for multi-year, sustainable worthwhile progress”. As a part of this, Frasers Group delivered £127.2 million of underlying cost-savings and synergy advantages, largely from current investments in warehouse automation and acquisitions.
Nonetheless, income declined 7.4% to £4.7 billion, primarily on account of deliberate reductions in segments comparable to Recreation UK and Studio Retail.
