All Fenwick articles
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NewsFenwick losses widen amid ‘most difficult trading conditions in living memory’
Fenwick has suffered widening full-year losses after enforced store closures drove a slump in sales during the coronavirus pandemic.
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Prospect Analysis
Fenwick (Overview)
Fenwick is mid-way through a three-year business transformation programme designed to create a unified and multichannel business. The retailer launched a transactional website in 2019 as part of its £25m IT infrastructure investment.
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Prospect Analysis
Fenwick (Financials)
Fenwick is in the second tier of UK department store groups in sales terms, with gross sales (including concessions) of £325m in 2019/20. Like its larger rivals, Fenwick has been finding the going exceptionally tough of late.
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Prospect Analysis
Fenwick (SWOT)
Fenwick’s 250,000 sq ft store in Newcastle upon Tyne has a particularly prime position at the heart of a vibrant regional retailing scene and is scheduled for a major overhaul. The Bond Street store in London had also been performing well following extension and refurbishment and under a significantly strengthened management team. Meanwhile, its state-of-the-art new flagship in Bracknell has significantly heightened the retailer’s profile in the wider South East.
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Prospect Analysis
Fenwick (Strategy)
Fenwick is a family-owned department store chain with its head office and largest store in Newcastle, but there are an additional eight branches spread around England.
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Prospect Analysis
Fenwick (People)
The Fenwick family is wrestling back control of the business amid the coronavirus pandemic following some non-family executive appointments over previous years.
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Prospect Analysis
Stores at Fenwick
Former chief executive Robbie Feather told Retail Week at the end of 2019 that his mission was to create a “quintessentially British department store” with a focus on fashion, beauty experiences, personal shopping and restaurants.
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Prospect Analysis
Technology strategy at Fenwick
Fenwick has kick-started a number of investments in its IT systems and digital infrastructure as it strives to catch up in technology, with former chairman Richard Pennycook pledging to invest some £25m during the three years to 2021.
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Prospect Analysis
Ecommerce at Fenwick
After several false starts, Fenwick launched of a fully transactional site in 2019 after acknowledging that this ‘is a vital channel’. It spent much of 2018 putting the infrastructure in place, selecting digital agency Astound Commerce to implement Salesforce’s commerce cloud ecommerce platform.
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Prospect Analysis
Customer and marketing at Fenwick
Fenwick caters for a mid to upmarket customer base.
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Prospect Analysis
Supply chain at Fenwick
Tight control of costs is a key element of the Fenwick business model, despite its upmarket positioning, while a strong element of local buying has helped it control stock levels to the point that it has become a USP.
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Analysis
Five ways to turn your staff into customer champions
Retail Week’s Customer Champions report, produced in association with Critizr, outlines the crucial role of frontline staff in welcoming customers back to stores.
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Prospect Analysis
Fenwick (Outlook)
Former boss Robbie Feather was overseeing a three-year transformation programme to make Fenwick fit for a multichannel future (see Technology strategy). However, increased investment in its digital infrastructure has put serious pressure on the bottom line in an exceptionally difficult trading environment for department stores.
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Analysis
The Big Question: Will raising rates on warehouses really save the high street?
After chancellor Rishi Sunak delayed the findings of the Treasury’s business rates review until the autumn, we ask experts whether the proposal from Dixons Carphone boss Alex Baldock and Next chief executive Lord Wolfson to increase rates paid by warehouses is the way to revamp the system
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Analysis
Retailers wary of April 12 timeframe for store reopening
Retailers have voiced disappointment that they will not be able to fully open their doors again before April 12 and concerns about the possibility of the post-lockdown timeframe changing again.
