Overview
Fenwick is a family-owned department store chain with eight branches spread around England.
Its prestigious location in London’s New Bond Street was shuttered in early 2024 following its sale to Lazari Investments at the end of 2022 as the retailer came under intense financial pressure.
Group strategy is focused on “redefining its premium, multi-brand, multi category department store and digital proposition across the UK” as well as building an increasingly efficient retail operating platform.
Part of its strategy is to increase full price sell-through with fewer and “bolder” discount events. The department store group maintains that bricks and mortar retail will “remain the dominant contributor to sales for the foreseeable future” while it is committed to growth and investment in both its store and digital channels.
A £40m transformation of its Newcastle flagship was kicked off in 2022. It unveiled “the largest beauty hall outside London” in October 2024. The 26,000 sq/ft space houses 163 brands and 23 new beauty counters, as welll as a 50ft-long fragrance bar.
Fenwick also continues to invest in service and hospitality to bolster its offer and provide a key differentiator. Recent initiatives include a fine-dining experience in its Newcastle flagship in partnership with bakery chain Greggs.
The retailer has embarked on a business transformation programme designed to create a unified and multichannel business, having eventually launched a transactional website in 2019 as part of its £25m IT infrastructure investment.
Leadership uncertainty
Fenwick had announced Nigel Blow as its new chief executive in July 2024, as John Edgar stood down from the role after over four years at the helm of the retailer. However, in late 2024 it was revealed that Blow would no longer be filling the position with a successor to Edgar now still presumably ongoing.
Retail Week reported other senior departures at Fenwick as it reshapes for its next stage of growth.
Fenwick chair Sian Westerman said: “John Edgar is stepping down as CEO as part of a reorganisation of our executive leadership team and wider changes to the management structure of the company.”
Former Selfridges and Harrods finance boss Edgar had taken over as CEO in April 2020 after former boss Robbie Feather and chairman Richard Pennycook left the business.
Fenwick’s USP
Fenwick’s USP is its strategy to tailor its in-store offer to local catchments, which it has been supplementing through modernising internal processes and investing in systems to improve the exchange and analysis of data.
The retailer opened its first store in over a decade during 2017 as part of regeneration works in Bracknell. The store anchors the Lexicon shopping and leisure destination, put together with a big focus on in-store theatre and experiences.
But all of this increased investment has exerted serious pressure on the bottom line, which was exacerbated by the pandemic, and the retailer was forced to sell its Bond Street flagship at the end of 2022 to bolster its coffers.
Amid a “changing retail environment” impacted by inflationary and cost pressures Fenwick total turnover fell 7.7% to £184.2m in the financial year to 26 January 2024 (FY2023). It also swung back into the red at operating and pre-tax levels in FY2023, with an operating loss of £32.0m.
New Bond Street flagship sold to raise capital
Fenwick departed its central London flagship in early 2024, after selling it to provide a much-needed injection of capital.
Announcing the £430m sale in late-2022, the former store is now expected to become a mixed-use development.
Proceeds of the sale will be reinvested in Fenwick’s other stores, including the Newcastle flagship (see below) and its online operations.
Fenwick will also use the cash raised to make a “significant contribution” to its pension fund and repay debt, share some with staff and return the surplus to shareholders.
Edgar said: “The capital injection from this transaction will put Fenwick in a much stronger position to grow its online business and concentrate on cementing our position as the home of excellent hospitality and a premium retail edit.
“After considering a range of options, it was decided that selling the Bond Street property is the right course of action to set us on the strongest possible footing for the future.”
£40m investment in Newcastle flagship from 2022
In March 2022 the department store retailer unveiled plans to invest £40m in upgrading its Newcastle flagship. The upgrades to the store will be carried out in phases over the next five years.
The first 18 months focused on a complete renovation of the beauty hall and the fragrance and accessories departments on the ground floor.
Edgar told Retail Week: “The investment will ultimately be across the store full stop. The main reason why you do the ground floor is that’s frankly where the bulk of your business is taken.”
Part of the refurbishment programme includes an upgrade of the façade, including a new central entrance.
The retailer is working closely with Newcastle City Council and Gateshead Initiative to support the regeneration of the city.
Edgar explained: “It is a significant investment – I think it is part of giving Newcastle what it deserves. It’s where our business started, it’s our biggest store by some degree. We’re a major icon in the community.
“We always invest in our stores but we think it’s time to make a step-change and really redefine what good looks like in terms of the retail landscape, at least in Newcastle city centre.”
More openings on the cards?
Press reports over summer 2023 suggested that Fenwick was in talks to take on the House of Fraser department store in Guildford following its closure in September of that year. Talks subsequently fell through, however. A source close to the discussions said that, while Fenwick had been “very interested” in the site, an agreement could not be reached.
While not commenting on that store in particular, Edgar told Retail Week towards the end of the year that there were no plans to dispose of any more stores in the wake of the Bond Street deal. “I’d actually like to add one or two in the right places,” he said.
First-ever marketing campaign ‘Quiet No More’
Capturing a new generation of shopper will be key to Fenwick’s future success, with the department store sector shrinking post Debenham’s demise and John Lewis more recently suffering a downturn in trade.
Cognisant of this, Fenwick launched its first ever marketing campaign - ‘Quiet No More’ - in September 2023.
The retailer said: “The launch of our first ever Fenwick brand campaign is a monumental moment for us. As a traditionally discreet brand, this is our time to be Quiet No More. Our campaign reaches out to a new generation who wants to engage with authentic brands, feel seen and welcomed. This is where we are spotlighting all the pioneers – young old, every age and gender – who embody what Fenwick stands for.”
Invested heavily in IT infrastructure to ensure it could offer seamless experience
Digital has been set as a priority from 2022 as the retailer seeks to catch up in online to take advantage of strong digital momentum triggered by the pandemic.
Speaking to Retail Week in October 2023, Edgar said that the disposal of its Bond Street store “has allowed us to continue our transformation on an even more sound footing”, enabling the group to up investment in digital “which is the growth driver”.
Edgar indicated that digital improvements included the launch of a new website and a consolidated supply chain.
Transactional site eventually launched in 2019
After several false starts, Fenwick launched 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.
At the same time, it partnered with marketing agency Emark to implement Salesforce’s marketing cloud and service cloud to help deliver personalised experiences. Fenwick says these partnerships will support a digital proposition that will be tailored to local markets.
The department store retailer launched its ecommerce platform in April 2019, initially selling 25,000 predominantly fashion SKUs. The offer has since been extended, however, and now covers the entire department store group’s proposition, operating through a number of different supplier models.
Technology strategy at Fenwick
Fenwick kick-started a number of investments in its IT systems and digital infrastructure under former chairman Richard Pennycook as it strived to catch up in technology, with £25m of investment pledged during the three years to 2021.
Management said the strategy was designed to improve the “exchange and analysis of data” and to “modernise internal processes”, which is particularly important for Fenwick as its ability to tailor its in-store offers to specific local preferences is seen as a USP.
In 2023, Fenwick is tapping Qlik Cloud to advance its analytics capabilities and empower more of its staff to use data in their day-to-day roles
Fenwick has progressed its data transformation journey in recent years, having first partnered with Qlik Cloud in 2020.
The deployment of Qlik Cloud has enabled Fenwick to advance its data management and analytics capabilities, which is enabling the retailer to empower business teams with real-time data and analytics.
Users can also build their own reports and share these with the community, driving more informed and quicker decision-making.
Fenwick made the all-important step online in April 2019, launching a new ecommerce site selling 25,000 predominantly fashion SKUs, although this has since been extended to cover the entire offer.
Ensuring it can support a completely seamless customer experience is vital after the retailer was forced to can a previous site – operational between 2012 and 2014 – because it couldn’t find the right model for its group of very different stores.
