{"id":594549,"date":"2026-08-16T00:34:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T00:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/594549\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T00:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T00:34:22","slug":"sports-directs-mike-ashley-has-saved-harvey-nichols-but-can-he-make-it-absolutely-fabulous-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/594549\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Direct\u2019s Mike Ashley has saved Harvey Nichols \u2013 but can he make it absolutely fabulous again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anyone who grew up in the Nineties knew that Harvey Nichols<\/a> was cool before they even had a bank account<\/a>. 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\u2019s much-loved Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic character, Becky Bloomwood, fell in love over cheesecake at the Knightsbridge department store<\/a>\u2019s top-floor restaurant. Culturally, Harvey Nicks was everywhere<\/a> \u2013 until it was nowhere at all. <\/p>\n

Big losses followed the retail brand\u2019s drop-off. Shop floors at locations in London, Bristol, Leeds and Manchester were \u2013 more often than not \u2013 eerily quiet, with a good chunk of those walking through its doors heading straight for the free loo. Last year\u2019s pre-tax losses sat at \u00a334m before sales slumped further to a \u00a349m loss this week. Retail business billionaire Mike Ashley<\/a> said the once zeitgeist-setting store<\/a> was in a \u201cdeath spiral\u201d, before his conglomerate, Frasers Group, bought the \u201chuge challenge\u201d for roughly \u00a340m<\/a> on Thursday (13 August). <\/p>\n

Harvey Nichols hasn\u2019t made a profit since the pandemic \u2013 and it\u2019s not alone in its struggle in the luxury market. Selfridges reported \u00a316m 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. <\/p>\n

\"BillionaireBillionaire Mike Ashley has said he will bring \u2018Dunkirk spirit\u2019 to Harvey Nichols after buying the brand for roughly \u00a340m (PA)<\/p>\n

Ashley, who made his money with the bargain brand Sports Direct<\/a>, has raised some fashion eyebrows about what exactly he plans to do with the historic Harvey Nicks. \u201cWe\u2019ll show them a bit of Dunkirk spirit,\u201d the 61-year-old told the Financial Times<\/a> of his venture into the luxury space that also saw him acquire the premium menswear brand Hugo Boss<\/a> in June \u2013 as well as building a 4 per cent stake in Burberry this July.<\/p>\n

But what will it actually take for Ashley to bring Harvey Nichols back from the brink? There\u2019s really only one woman to ask: legendary PR strategist Lynne Franks, who worked with the department store for three decades \u2013 and was the source of inspiration for Jennifer Saunders’ Absolutely Fabulous PR guru Edina \u201cEddie\u201d Monsoon. \u201cAs soon as Dickson Poon bought Harvey Nichols and put an accountant as CEO, it just became very boring,\u201d she says of the Hong Kong business magnate\u2019s recently terminated reign. \u201cYou cannot, as a fashion retailer in today\u2019s world, be boring \u2013 because there\u2019s just no reason for people to go.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"OffOff to Harvey Nicks! The department store was a regular reference point in \u2018Absolutely Fabulous\u2019 (BBC)<\/p>\n

The Knightsbridge store was anything but boring when Franks was involved. \u201cAnything exciting in fashion was happening at Harvey Nichols,\u201d she says, nodding to Mary Portas\u2019s theatrical window displays, collaborations with Boy George<\/a>, 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese days you have to pay celebrities to come to your events,\u201d she says. \u201cIn 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\u2019s happened to Harvey Nichols is it\u2019s had all the life sucked out of it, and it\u2019s become culturally immaterial. But they could do some extraordinary things if they\u2019ve got the energy and realise it\u2019s not just about cutting costs and cutting staff.\u201d <\/p>\n

These days you have to pay celebrities to come to your events. In those days, famous people wanted to come to our parties<\/p>\n

Lynne Franks, Harvey Nichols\u2019 former PR strategist<\/p>\n

Luxury brand strategist Hannah Alley<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something quite valuable now in the retailer acting in a more editorial way,\u201d she says, suggesting the brand \u201cowns the position of the most tightly edited, opinionated, department store\u201d out there to rebuild its brand identity. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t try to win an arms race on breadth,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019d make the confidence of the edit the point.\u201d Read: good taste. <\/p>\n

\"\u2018You\u2018You can\u2019t be boring\u2019: PR guru Lynne Franks has told Harvey Nicks bosses to give her a call (PA)<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

But brand reputation is yet to catch up with the work Goddard and her team have done. \u201cThe job becomes making the new version visible enough, talked about enough, that the public perception starts catching up,\u201d says Alley. \u201cThere\u2019s still a lot of affection around the Harvey Nichols name\u2026 but a retailer can remain famous for years, while becoming much less embedded in someone\u2019s weekly or monthly behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franks suggests that Harvey Nichols targets the children of Britain\u2019s wealthiest, who \u201cgo to festivals and glamp, love music, have money to spend and want to be where it\u2019s all happening\u201d. Does she think Ashley is the needed force to usher in this new era? \u201cI don\u2019t know the man\u201d, she says. \u201cI think he really knows what he\u2019s doing as a retailer\u2026 he\u2019s surviving and he\u2019s making money \u2013 so it can\u2019t be a bad thing.\u201d <\/p>\n

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. \u201cGive me a call,\u201d Franks tells Ashley. \u201cI can see so clearly how it could be brilliantly successful.\u201d Her first campaigns? A classic cashmere range \u2013 and a big presence at Manchester Fashion Week. Cheers, sweetie, darling. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone who grew up in the Nineties knew that Harvey Nichols was cool before they even had a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60],"class_list":["post-594549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}