ONLINE retailer Boohoo has bought the Debenhams website and brand in a £55million deal.
The move leaves stores and staff jobs at risk, with the department store to relaunch as an online-only operation from next year.
Boohoo has bought the Debenhams website and brand in a £55million deal
Bosses said the deal will not include saving Debenhams’ stores which will close for good as part of a structured winding down of the business.
Debenhams announced its business would be wound down in December 2020, in a move affecting 124 shops and 12,000 jobs.
The retailer’s stores are currently shut due to lockdown rules, but shoppers can still purchase goods on its website.
Debenhams has already cut 6,500 jobs since May after falling into administration for the second time in April.
Meanwhile, the majority of Debenhams’ current employees in the UK are currently being paid under the government’s furlough scheme.
The business was set to be liquidated after JDSports pulled out of bids to save the troubled department store chain.
The collapse came after Debenhams’ sales in the six months to October plunged to £323million versus billions in its heyday.
John Lyttle, Boohoo’s chief executive, said: “The acquisition of the Debenhams brand is an important development for the group, as we seek to capture incremental growth opportunities arising from the accelerating shift to online retail.
“We have developed a successful multi‐brand direct‐ to‐consumer platform that continues to disrupt the markets that we operate in.
“The acquisition represents an exciting strategic opportunity to transform our target addressable market through the creation of an online marketplace that leverages Debenhams’ high brand awareness and traffic through the development of beauty and fashion partnerships connecting brands with consumers.”
More to follow…
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