New selfridges owners plan hotel and apartments for oxford street store

Matt Oliver 30 December 2021 10:57am GMT Selfridges will add an upmarket hotel and flats to its Oxford Street site under plans revealed by the department store’s new owners. The revamp of

the flagship store, which the retailer has occupied for more than a century, will also include an improved food hall. Thailand’s Central Group and the Austrian property outfit Signa bought

Selfridges for $5.4bn (£4bn) from the Weston family last week. The companies also own Italian department store Rinascente, Swiss firm Globus and the KaDeWe group in Germany and Austria and

set up a joint venture to buy the retailer. Dieter Berninghaus, executive chairman of Signa, said that adding a hotel and apartment to Selfridges’ main store would add “significant value”.

“The purchase price merely reflects the valuation of the main Selfridges building and its retail utilisation,” he told the Financial Times. Part of the Oxford Street store has been dormant

since the former Selfridges Hotel closed in 2008 other than for temporary uses such as an indoor skatepark. Mr Berninghaus said Signa would also bring its expertise to the upgrade of the

food hall, which offers items such as “pantry essentials” hampers for £120. “We plan to trade up the food hall of Selfridges - that is one of our core competencies we have in the group, in

KaDeWe and in Globus: we operate the best fine food delicatessen business in the world,” he said. As well as the Oxford Street store, Selfridges has stores in Manchester and Birmingham as

well as the de Bijenkorf chain in the Netherlands, Brown Thomas and Arnotts in Ireland and online operations. Selfridges’ first outlet was opened in 1908 by Harry Gordon Selfridge but has

struggled during the coronavirus pandemic as lockdowns, travel restrictions and low consumer confidence hit the retail sector.  The Westons launched an auction in the summer with Credit

Suisse, garnering interest from the Qatar Investment Authority, Hong Kong’s Lane Crawford and Canada’s Hudson’s Bay Company. The Westons will retain the Canadian business, Holt Renfrew.

Signa and Central Group each have a 50pc stake in the new venture.