Selfridges losses double despite 95% lift in revenue

The parent company of Selfridges has sunk deeper into the red as annual losses more than doubled due to higher administrative and distribution costs.
Cambridge Retail Group, which includes Selfridges in the UK, the Irish department stores Brown Thomas and Arnotts, as well as De Bijenkorf in the Netherlands, reported that pre-tax losses rose to £340.3 million in the 53 weeks to February 3, widening from a £126.2 million loss in the previous year, according to newly filed accounts at Companies House.
Annual revenues rose sharply to £1.57 billion, up 95.6 per cent from £804.7 million previously.
Selfridges Retail, which operates four luxury department stores and an online platform in UK, made a £41.9 million pre-tax loss in the year, compared with £39.3 million previously. As with the parent company, the UK department store chain reported higher revenues of £834.9 million, an improvement of 1 per cent from the previous year when it posted revenues of £843.7 million, according to separately filed accounts.
The scrapping of VAT-free shopping for international visitors is said to have weighed on Britain’s luxury sector. Selfridges is dependent in part on footfall and purchases from affluent foreign visitors coming to the UK and has campaigned for its re-instatement along with fellow retailers Burberry and Harrods.
The tax-free shopping scheme, which allowed international visitors to the UK to reclaim 20 per cent VAT on purchases, was scrapped in January 2021 by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor.
A spokesman at Selfridges said: “This year we are trading in line with expectations, footfall is up again, and we have seen a strong response to many of our investments, launches and activations including our newly renovated Oxford Street beauty hall.”
Selfridge’s future was thrown into doubt last year when financial troubles plagued Signa, its heavily indebted former shareholder. Earlier this month Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund announced it had struck a deal to buy out the stake in Selfridges held by Signa, the collapsed Aus­trian conglomerate.
The Saudi Public Investment Fund will hold a 40 per cent stake in Selfridges after the deal and Central Group, a conglomerate controlled by Thailand’s Chirathivat family, will own 60 per cent.
Selfridges was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge, an American businessman, in 1909, when he invested £400,000 of his own money in opening a department store in the west end of Oxford Street.