Sports Direct has bought House of Fraser’s property on Glasgow’s Buchanan Street outright in a bid to create the ‘Harrods of the North’.

The sporting goods retailer’s property arm has snapped up the listed 350,000 sq ft House of Fraser store, which has 800 employees.

Sports Direct said the acquisition “provides a fantastic base to create and build on the existing luxury offer in order to create the Harrods of the North” and demonstrated “House of Fraser’s significant commitment to transforming the company”.

Sports Direct’s head of elevation Michael Murray said: “We are overwhelmed and proud to own such an iconic destination. Acquiring the freehold enables us to elevate and invest in the store in order to partner with a broad range of luxury brands in future.”

CBRE’s senior director of retail Scotland Kevin Sims, who represented House of Fraser during the acquisition, added: “This is a fantastic deal for Glasgow and Scotland.

“It is an iconic store and much of the success of Buchanan Street over the last 20 years has been built around having Frasers as an important anchor tenant for the street. This fully cements House of Fraser’s intent to create a luxury department store business.”