UK department store chain Harvey Nichols has shuttered its website following its rescue deal with Frasers Group last week.

Its website tells visitors that the store is “temporarily unavailable online” while it completes a period of transition. In the meantime, it adds, its stores and restaurants remain open.

The webpage also warns that orders placed and gift cards purchased prior to its buyout on 13 August fall under the company’s previous ownership structure. This means that refunds relating to these orders cannot be resolved with Harvey Nichols directly but instead must go through administrator FTI Consulting.

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group acquired the chain on 13 August after several weeks of negotiations with the company and FTI Consulting, its standby administrator. The pre-pack administration deal included Harvey Nichols’s six stores across the UK, its online business, existing inventory, international franchise agreements and 1,200 employees.

It excluded its restaurant at OXO in London, and discussions in relation to its Dublin store are ongoing, according to Frasers Group.

At the time of acquisition, Frasers Group said that the department store would require “significant restructuring and integration” in order to return to profitability, including a “review and rationalisation of the store portfolio, organisational structure, operating model and cost base.”

Although not explicitly stated, comments by Frasers Group chief executive Michael Murray suggest that this rationalisation is likely to result in a reduction of the businesses’ footprint.

“Harvey Nichols is an iconic British institution with significant potential, but it is clear meaningful change is needed,” Murray said. “The turnaround will require tough choices, and we are prepared to make those decisions, even if that means a smaller business in the near term, to create a stronger and more sustainable Harvey Nichols for the long term.”

Mike Ashley previously told the Financial Times that he intended to maintain only the brand’s flagship Knightsbridge store and its shop in Edinburgh, rebranding the rest as other companies in the Frasers Group portfolio.

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