Debenhams

The former Debenham, Son & Freebody building in Wigmore Street which was completed in 1908

The business was formed in 1778 by William Clark, who began trading at 44 Wigmore Street in London as a drapers' store.[8] In 1813, William Debenham became a partner and the corporate name changed to Clark & Debenham. The shop was later renamed Cavendish House and carried drapery, silks, haberdashery, millinery, hosiery, lace, and family mourning goods. As the trade grew, the partners determined to expand the business by opening branches in Cheltenham and Harrogate.[9]

By 1823, Clark & Debenham had opened a small drapery business at 3 Promenade Rooms, Cheltenham, selling a selection of silks, muslins, shawls, gloves, lace and fancy goods.[9] In 1837, Clark retired from the business and Debenham assumed two of his most trusted staff, William Pooley and John Smith, as partners, trading in both London and Cheltenham as Debenham, Pooley & Smith.[9] By 1840, the management of the Cheltenham branch appears to have been given to Clement Freebody, Debenham's brother-in-law. Around 1843, another branch shop was launched in Harrogate.[9]

Extended and refurbished premises opened in Cheltenham in October 1844. Pooley and Smith retired from the business in 1851 when Debenham took his son, William, and Clement Freebody into partnership, trading as Debenham, Son & Freebody. At this time all three shops in London, Cheltenham, and Harrogate were trading in similar goods and issued a joint catalogue, called the Fashion Book, that was the basis of an extensive mail-order trade. In 1876 when Freebody retired, a new partnership, Debenham & Hewitt, was formed. George Hewitt appears to have worked at the Cheltenham store as a draper's assistant during the early 1860s but details of his subsequent career are not known. By 1883, George Hewitt was the sole owner of the Cheltenham business, Frank and William Debenham having withdrawn to manage the London store as a separate concern.[9]

Crypt Chambers in Chester houses part of the Browns of Chester store and is a Grade I listed building.

The business was incorporated as Debenhams Limited in 1905.[10] A new headquarters building, which was designed by William Wallace and James Glen Sivewright Gibson[11] and built by Trollope & Colls, was completed in Wigmore Street in 1908.[12] The modern Debenhams group grew from the acquisition of department stores in towns and cities throughout the UK, under the leadership of its chairman, Ernest Debenham. The first of these purchases, Marshall & Snelgrove at Oxford Street in London, was acquired through a one sided merger in 1919. Later purchases included Harvey Nichols in London's Knightsbridge in 1920.[13] Most of the acquired stores retained their former identities until a unified corporate image was rolled out. The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1928, shortly after it had purchased fellow retail group Drapery Trust.[14]

In 1976 the company acquired Browns of Chester. It remains the only one of the company's UK stores to have retained an individual identity.[13] The business diversified during the 1970s buying South East based supermarket group Cater Brothers in 1972, after the death of its chairman Leslie Cater. Using the new purchasing power Debenhams modernised its 40 food halls within its stores, branding them Cater's Food Halls, and opened two new Cater superstores. However the business declined in the intense marketplace and in 1979 the chain was sold to Allied Suppliers who converted the Cater stores into their Presto format.[15]

Debenhams was targeted three times during the 1980s by the Animal Liberation Front in protest at the sale of animal furs in stores. Stores in Romford, Luton, and Harrow were fire-bombed by members, the worst attack being on the Luton store. As a result, the company stopped selling clothes with animal furs.[16] It was alleged by Caroline Lucas MP in a debate in Westminster Hall that Bob Lambert, a then undercover police officer, planted the fire bomb that caused £340,000 worth of damage to the Harrow branch of Debenhams in 1987. It is unclear if anything has come of these allegations as of March 2014.[16][17][18][19]

In 1985 the company was acquired by the Burton Group.[13] Following the closure of the store in Dudley in January 1981 and the Birmingham store in 1983, the company's only store in the West Midlands for the next six years was a town centre store in Walsall. On 4 November 1989, it opened a store at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Brierley Hill.[20] Debenhams demerged from the Burton Group in January 1998 and was once again listed as a separate company on the London Stock Exchange.[21] It expanded under the leadership of Belinda Earl who was appointed CEO in 2000.[22]

Debenhams in Bury St Edmunds

Debenhams opened its largest British store on 4 September 2003, at the new Bull Ring shopping centre in Birmingham.[23] The new store contains 19,230 sq m and opened 20 years after the company closed its Birmingham city centre store due to declining trade.[24] A private consortium named Baroness Retail Limited acquired the company in November 2003,[25] and it returned to a listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2006. The consortium comprised CVC Capital Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity, and management.[26]

Debenhams' flagship store in Oxford Street, London, England

The company purchased the brand name and stock of Principles in March 2009 after the business entered administration. Principles operated concessions within 121 Debenhams stores, and was subsequently relaunched by Ben de Lisi as part of the Designers at Debenhams range.[27] In November 2009, Debenhams acquired the Danish department store group Magasin Du Nord for £12.3 million.[28] The company operates six stores in Denmark under the Magasin brand.[29]

In July 2010 Debenhams purchased the 115 Faith concessions trading within its stores, after Faith entered administration.[30] In April 2012 the company announced it would be building 14 new stores, and was in negotiations over a further 25 sites in the UK.[31] Debenhams agreed to become the anchor store at the Riverside shopping centre in Shrewsbury.[32] By September 2012, the company announced that like-for-like sales had risen by 3.3% in the six months up to that date.[33]

Debenhams, Bradford.

Debenhams moved to a new headquarters in 2013, in Brock Street, London. The company moved to a new building, built by British Land in Regent's Place. The company leased 174,500 square feet (16,000 m²) of office space from British Land for 25 years.[34] The company began a refurbishment of its flagship store in Oxford Street in 2013, which involved the installation of 180,000 aluminium tiles on the exterior of the building that appears to ripple with the wind. An existing floor was also converted to become a trading floor. The total cost of the refurbishment was in the region of £40 million, of which Debenhams contributed £25 million. The owner of the building, British Land, also contributed towards the cost.[35] The refurbishment was due to be completed by February 2014.[36]

The company's trading statement for the 17 weeks up to 28 December 2013 was released on 31 December 2013, and revealed a reduction in pre-tax profit from £115 million to £85 million.[37] On 2 January 2014, the company's chief financial officer Simon Herrick resigned, following criticism of his financial decisions.[38] On 13 January 2014 4.6% of Debenhams shares were bought by Sports Direct, the retailer run by Mike Ashley. The stock market purchase of 56.8 million shares (worth around £46m) was made without the prior knowledge of the Debenhams board. Sports Direct stated at the time it intends to be a supportive share holder. The Debenhams board responded by stating they are open-minded with regard to exploring operational opportunities to improve its performance.[39][40] Sports Direct sold its shares on 16 January 2014, although they took out an option to buy further shares up to a total of 6.6%.[41] In August 2017, it emerged that Ashley had secured 21% of the shares which gave him over 10% of voting rights in the company.[42]

Debenhams, Swindon

During 2017 Debenhams opened two new stores, one in Stevenage and one in Wolverhampton. The 80,000 sq ft Stevenage store was opened on 24 August 2017 at Roaring Meg Retail and Leisure Park by Celebrity fashion designer Julien MacDonald and local hero Jean Robinson, who had won a competition for the privilege. The store is the first to be designed under the vision of CEO Sergio Bucher, with a new layout and format with the emphasis on encouraging people to stay longer.[43] The second store to open during 2017 is the new 93,000 sq ft store at Wolverhampton's Mander Centre. The store was opened on 12 October 2017 as part of the centre's £35 million refurbishments, it is also Debenhams' first store in Wolverhampton. It is only the second to feature the new layout previously only seen in the Stevenage store, and only the second to feature the company's new deli-restaurant format Loaf & Bloom, only previously seen at Milton Keynes.[44]

In February 2018, the company announced a reduction of up to 320 store management roles across the business by the end of March.[45] Sports Direct increased its holding in the company to 29.7% on 2 March, just below the level whereby it would be required to submit a formal takeover approach.[46]

After media speculation about Debenhams' survival,[47] in 2018 the company announced the largest loss in its history, a pre-tax loss of £491 million,[2] and the closure of up to 50 stores with the potential loss of 4,000 jobs.[48]

On 9 April 2019, the company announced that they had gone into pre-pack administration.[49]

On 26 April 2019, the company announced that in addition to rent reductions on all except 39 stores, 22 stores would close after Christmas 2019. This included the recently opened Wolverhampton store plus Altrincham, Ashford, Birmingham Fort, Canterbury, Chatham, Eastbourne, Folkestone, Great Yarmouth, Guildford, Kirkcaldy, Orpington, Slough, Southport, Southsea, Staines, Stockton-on-Tees, Walton-on-Thames, Wandsworth, Welwyn Garden City, Wimbledon and Witney.[50]

On 6 April 2020, Debenhams confirmed it had filed a notice of intent to appoint administrators.[51][52] CEO Stefaan Vansteenkiste said it was due to "unprecedented" circumstances caused by the COVID-19 lockdown and was to "protect [the] business, ... employees, and other important stakeholders".[53] On 9 April 2020, the company went into administration.[5]

On 9 April 2020, Debenhams confirmed it planned to close 11 stores in the Republic of Ireland with immediate effect.[54]

In April 2020, Debenhams closed seven UK stores and was set to close five more when Coronavirus restrictions were lifted.[55] This included the Croydon store that anchored the Centrale shopping mall (previously the Drummond Centre) that Debenhams had acquired when they took over the Kennards chain of stores, bringing to a close a trading period of more than 150 years from that site.[56]

In July 2020, Debenhams was set to abandon its property in Princes Street in Edinburgh, which it leased from Legal & General, in order to make room for a £50m hotel.[57] In the same month, Debenhams put itself up for sale to prevent it going into liquidation, hoping to find a buyer by September.[58] In August 2020, the company announced it was cutting 2,500 job positions as a result of the economic effects of the pandemic. The job cuts affected store management positions; sales managers, visual merchandise managers, and selling support managers were set to be axed. According to the company, "The trading environment is clearly a long way from returning to normal. Such difficult decisions are being taken by many retailers right now, and we will continue to take all necessary steps to give Debenhams every chance of a viable future."[59] In September 2020, Debenhams put its seven store Danish chain, Magasin du Nord, up for sale.[60]

On 1 December 2020, after the collapse of talks with Arcadia (which went into administration the previous day)[61] and JD Sports over a potential rescue,[6] Debenhams announced it was going into liquidation, putting 12,000 jobs in 124 UK stores at risk unless the administrators could find buyers for all or parts of the business.[7] With the company in administration and on the verge of liquidation, on 6 December 2020, Mike Ashley's Frasers Group was reported to be in talks to acquire Debenhams,[62][63][64] though it was later reported that Ashley was mainly interested in using empty Debenhams stores to expand his other chains, including House of Fraser, Sports Direct and Flannels; taking 'vacant possession' would avoid redundancy costs for existing staff.[65]

On 13 January 2021, Debenhams announced it would permanently shut six stores in England due to the COVID-19 lockdown. They included the flagship Oxford Street store in London, plus those in Worcester, Weymouth, Staines, Harrogate and Portsmouth; the move involved 320 job losses.[66]

On 25 January 2021, it was announced that Boohoo had bought the Debenhams brand and website for £55m, but did not retain any of the remaining 118 stores, meaning the loss of up to 12,000 jobs.[67]

As of December 2020, the company owns and operates 124 stores in the United Kingdom,[78] and 7 under the Magasin du Nord brand in Denmark.[79] Debenhams occupies the most sites of any of the traditional department store groups in the UK. The majority of the original trading names of the stores, in each of their respective locations, were replaced with the "Debenhams" name during the 1970s. All department stores in the group now trade as "Debenhams" (although the store in Chester is still dual-signed as Debenhams and Browns of Chester).[80]

In April 2020, stores operated in the Republic of Ireland by Debenhams Ireland ceased trading with the loss of nearly 2,000 jobs[81] (the four Debenhams stores in Northern Ireland are operated as part of the United Kingdom business).

Stores amalgamated into the group include:

The Debenhams brand is used in 45 stores operating under licence in 17 other countries.[83] Previously opened in 2003, Debenhams' last store in Indonesia closed in 31 December 2017,[84] while its only store in Australia closed in January 2020 after 2 years of trading.[85]