When China’s Sanpower Group bought House of Fraser in 2014, its founder, Yuan Yafei, talked boldly about his plans to take the 166-year-old UK department store chain global.
The entrepreneur and former local government official not only promised to inject capital into the cash-strapped retailer, but his vision also included new outposts in Russia and the Middle East and most importantly a push into China with up to 50 new stores under the name “Oriental Fraser”.
None of that has happened. This year’s planned April launch date of a flagship store in Nanjing passed without any sign of the fireworks and dancing lions that usually accompany grand openings on the mainland.