For the first half of the year, House of Fraser’s comparable sales were down 5.2 per cent. Sales were hurt by web disruption as it moved to a new platform, which sent e-tail sales down 9.8 per cent. But the benefits of its transformation program are already beginning to come through in the first seven weeks of the second half, with better sales and margin performance. The company also expects a full recovery in e-commerce sales, originally expected to be complete by the end of the summer but now set to take a further four to six weeks.

The new own label women’s collections have been launched including the acquired Issa label and customers’ response to date has been very encouraging with initial sales exceeding expectations. The new web platform has greatly improved customers’ experience and online margins. Good progress has been made in recovering sale volumes and the group expects to be trading normally by the beginning of the important final quarter of the year.

House of Fraser is an UK department store giant. Its investment in the distribution center will deliver cost savings through improved operational efficiencies. The group is optimistic that it can deliver growth over the key trading final quarter of the year.