A UK sports, fashion and lifestyle retail group, home of Sports Direct, House of Fraser, Flannels and other brands, run from Shirebrook in Derbyshire.
Frasers Group is one of the biggest retail groups in the UK. It is best known for Sports Direct, which sells sports clothing, footwear and equipment, and for House of Fraser, the department store brand. It also runs fascias such as USC, GAME and Evans Cycles, which sit inside selected Sports Direct stores, and the luxury fashion retailer Flannels. Together these brands give shoppers everything from football boots and gym kit to designer clothes under one group.
The story began in 1982, when Mike Ashley opened a single shop in Maidenhead called Mike Ashley Sports. By the end of the 1990s the business had around 100 stores. It was renamed Sports Direct in 2008, and in November 2019 the group rebranded as Frasers Group, with House of Fraser becoming a second flagship brand alongside Sports Direct. We did not find a short mission statement on the pages we read. The company describes its direction as the Elevation Strategy: making its stores and brands more premium, building stronger partnerships with brands such as Nike, Adidas and Hugo Boss, and investing in larger flagship stores.
The group is headquartered in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, where Sports Direct has a large head office and distribution base. It has stores across the whole of the UK. Reported 2024 figures put the group at roughly 715 stores and about 20,000 employees. Recent flagship stores include a very large Sports Direct in Liverpool, and a revamped Oxford Street store in London. Frasers also buys and manages property, including shopping centres and retail parks in places such as Greenock and Braehead in Scotland.
People in a business like this work in many different roles. Store teams serve customers and manage stock and visual displays. Behind the scenes are buyers, merchandisers, e-commerce and digital teams, logistics and warehouse staff, property specialists and finance teams. The company also runs Frasers Plus, a customer finance and rewards platform that reports around 1.1 million active customers, which means technology and customer service roles sit alongside retail ones.
Frasers has been growing by buying and partnering with other retailers, and it has opened Sports Direct stores overseas, including Malta, Australia and the Middle East. For a student, that means a large employer with a wide spread of functions across the UK, from shop floor to head office. We did not find a published description of company culture or values, so ask current staff what day-to-day working life is like. The group's own results commentary says it is investing in brand partnerships, its product mix, international Sports Direct stores and property, which tells you the kinds of teams it keeps growing: buying, store development, property, finance and digital. Check the Frasers Group careers site for the current list of roles.
Website: www.frasers.group
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