Anyone who grew up in the Nineties knew that Harvey Nichols was cool before they even had a bank account. Princess Diana was routinely papped outside; the Absolutely Fabulous duo Eddie and Patsy spent their life savings there between bottles of Bollinger. Even Sophie Kinsella’s much-loved Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic character, Becky Bloomwood, fell in love over cheesecake at the Knightsbridge department store’s top-floor restaurant. Culturally, Harvey Nicks was everywhere – until it was nowhere at all.
Big losses followed the retail brand’s drop-off. Shop floors at locations in London, Bristol, Leeds and Manchester were – more often than not – eerily quiet, with a good chunk of those walking through its doors heading straight for the free loo. Last year’s pre-tax losses sat at £34m before sales slumped further to a £49m loss this week. Retail business billionaire Mike Ashley said the once zeitgeist-setting store was in a “death spiral”, before his conglomerate, Frasers Group, bought the “huge challenge” for roughly £40m on Thursday (13 August).
Harvey Nichols hasn’t made a profit since the pandemic – and it’s not alone in its struggle in the luxury market. Selfridges reported £16m losses last year and has not made a pre-tax profit since 2019. Overall, roughly 35 to 40 per cent of luxury goods were sold at knockdown prices last year, according to consultancy Bain & Company and Altagamma, an increase of at least 5 per cent from a decade ago, as even the wealthy hunt for discounts amid financial uncertainty.
Billionaire Mike Ashley has said he will bring ‘Dunkirk spirit’ to Harvey Nichols after buying the brand for roughly £40m (PA)
Ashley, who made his money with the bargain brand Sports Direct, has raised some fashion eyebrows about what exactly he plans to do with the historic Harvey Nicks. “We’ll show them a bit of Dunkirk spirit,” the 61-year-old told the Financial Times of his venture into the luxury space that also saw him acquire the premium menswear brand Hugo Boss in June – as well as building a 4 per cent stake in Burberry this July.
But what will it actually take for Ashley to bring Harvey Nichols back from the brink? There’s really only one woman to ask: legendary PR strategist Lynne Franks, who worked with the department store for three decades – and was the source of inspiration for Jennifer Saunders’ Absolutely Fabulous PR guru Edina “Eddie” Monsoon. “As soon as Dickson Poon bought Harvey Nichols and put an accountant as CEO, it just became very boring,” she says of the Hong Kong business magnate’s recently terminated reign. “You cannot, as a fashion retailer in today’s world, be boring – because there’s just no reason for people to go.”
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Off to Harvey Nicks! The department store was a regular reference point in ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ (BBC)
The Knightsbridge store was anything but boring when Franks was involved. “Anything exciting in fashion was happening at Harvey Nichols,” she says, nodding to Mary Portas’s theatrical window displays, collaborations with Boy George, and working relationships with designers like Katharine Hamnett and brands like Body Map, which helped put London on the global style map with their bold energy.
“These days you have to pay celebrities to come to your events,” she says. “In those days, famous people wanted to come to our parties. We had live fashion shows in store with people like Donna Karan and Jean-Paul Gaultier. There was always something going on. It seems to me, what’s happened to Harvey Nichols is it’s had all the life sucked out of it, and it’s become culturally immaterial. But they could do some extraordinary things if they’ve got the energy and realise it’s not just about cutting costs and cutting staff.”
These days you have to pay celebrities to come to your events. In those days, famous people wanted to come to our parties
Lynne Franks, Harvey Nichols’ former PR strategist
Luxury brand strategist Hannah Alley says that Harvey Nichols, as the smaller department store offering on UK high streets compared to Selfridges and Harrods, has an opportunity to make its size part of its appeal and offer shoppers curated collections of products from exciting brands that cut through the noise of limitless online options.
“There’s something quite valuable now in the retailer acting in a more editorial way,” she says, suggesting the brand “owns the position of the most tightly edited, opinionated, department store” out there to rebuild its brand identity. “I wouldn’t try to win an arms race on breadth,” she says. “I’d make the confidence of the edit the point.” Read: good taste.
‘You can’t be boring’: PR guru Lynne Franks has told Harvey Nicks bosses to give her a call (PA)
Julia Goddard, who formerly spent 14 years at Alexander McQueen, was appointed Harvey Nichols CEO in spring 2024. Since then, there have been improvements, including illustrated window displays, a more diverse roster of designers, and an increased health and wellness offering.
But brand reputation is yet to catch up with the work Goddard and her team have done. “The job becomes making the new version visible enough, talked about enough, that the public perception starts catching up,” says Alley. “There’s still a lot of affection around the Harvey Nichols name… but a retailer can remain famous for years, while becoming much less embedded in someone’s weekly or monthly behaviour.”
Franks suggests that Harvey Nichols targets the children of Britain’s wealthiest, who “go to festivals and glamp, love music, have money to spend and want to be where it’s all happening”. Does she think Ashley is the needed force to usher in this new era? “I don’t know the man”, she says. “I think he really knows what he’s doing as a retailer… he’s surviving and he’s making money – so it can’t be a bad thing.”
More visibility, more collaborations, keener interest in the cultural conversation and a curated collection of products could all bring Harvey Nichols back to relevance in the right hands. “Give me a call,” Franks tells Ashley. “I can see so clearly how it could be brilliantly successful.” Her first campaigns? A classic cashmere range – and a big presence at Manchester Fashion Week. Cheers, sweetie, darling.