The upmarket Selfridges department store business comprises the long-established Oxford Street flagship plus three provincial stores – two in Manchester and one in Birmingham.
Selfridges has been established as a luxury retailer with a fashion and beauty bias. Its high-end positioning has been endorsed by ongoing innovation and enhancement of the London flagship where a £300m overhaul was completed in 2019.
The Oxford Street store is ranked among the best department stores in the world, famous for its retail theatre, extensive offer and high-profile events.
Following a relaunch of the website, Selfridges has become increasingly multichannel in approach over the past few years. Growing the online business internationally has also been a key focus.
Selfridges recouped some of the previous year’s sales shortfall in the year to end-January 2022 (FY2021), with net sales rising 28.5% to £654.3m, although this was still 23% down on FY2019. While the department store group remained in the red in FY2021, operating losses narrowed to £38.1m against £136.9m in the challenging previous year.
With its former Weston family owners having put the business up for sale in mid-2021, Selfridges was acquired by Thailand’s Central Group and Austrian real estate company Signa Holding in a £4bn deal in December 2021. The sale to Central Group, which owns over 3,700 stores worldwide, including Italian department store group La Rinascente, signalled the return of the well-respected Vittorio Radice who ran Selfridges between 1996 and 2003 and oversaw the transformation of the department store group into a contemporary, innovative business.
Innovation rating: 2.5
