Frasers, the retail group controlled by controversial billionaire Mike Ashley, has set a target for the opening of a new concept store that will bring various "aspirational brands" under one roof.
The 70,000sq ft store is due to open late next spring in Dundee's Overgate Centre, which Frasers bought in March 2023. The deal, thought to be worth £30 million, made Frasers landlord to several of its retailing competitors.
The group owns Sports Direct, House of Fraser, and a collection of other brands such as GAME, Jack Wills, Sofa.com, Evans Cycle, USC, and Everlast. The new "next-generation" Frasers store will feature a number of these brands.
"The opening of the 70,000sq ft Frasers store next year will be a transformational moment for Overgate, for the city, and for the wider region, regenerating this landmark space with an exceptional retail experience synonymous with Frasers Group," centre manager Malcolm Angus said. "We are very much advancing the vision and commencement of works at pace.”
Frasers said Overgate has recently signed five new leases with leading high street brands such as Søstrene Grene, which opened last month, and Ranger FC kit supplier Castore, An agreement with a new high street fashion brand and a footwear retailer is also said to be in the final stages of completion.
Other new retailers at the Overgate since its acquisition include Rituals, Pandora, Lovisa, Bee Inspired, and The Leith Collective, while 15 existing leases have been renewed.
“We have had a busy 18 months since Frasers Group invested in the Overgate Shopping Centre, to date bringing over 12 new exciting brands to the centre," Mr Angus said. "Frasers Group has also renewed leases with the brands we know our customers love, with several so far reinvesting into updating their store aesthetic and product offering."
Major company board role for former Scottish Enterprise chief executive
Lena Wilson, former chief executive of economic development agency Scottish Enterprise, has become chair of one of Scotland’s major publicly quoted companies.
Aberdeen-based bus and rail company FirstGroup announced tis morning that, “following a comprehensive search process”, Ms Wilson will be joining its board as chair on February 1 next year.
Read the full story here.
Scottish space start-up welcomes Orbex founder to its board of directors
The co-founder and former chief executive of Scottish-based rocket manufacturer Orbex has joined two of his erstwhile employees on the board of directors at their start-up space company.
Edinburgh-based Aurora Avionics, set up last year by former Orbex engineers Rowland Fraser and Oren Smith-Carpenter, has appointed Chris Larmour as a non-executive director. Prior to his surprise departure in May 2023 Mr Larmour raised approximately $100 million (£76.5m) in venture capital and public funding for Orbex, which now employs more than 200 people.
Read the full story here.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here