Debenhams
Debenhams is a British multinational retailer operating department stores in the United Kingdom and Denmark, with franchise stores in other countries. The company was founded in the eighteenth century as a single store in London and has now grown to 178 locations across those countries. It sells a range of clothing, household items and furniture.
Headquartered in Regent's Place in the London Borough of Camden, the company owns the Danish department store chain, Magasin du Nord.
On 9 April 2020, Debenhams entered administration again, exactly one year after having entered administration previously.
History
18th and 19th centuries
The business was formed in 1778 by William Clark, who began trading at 44 Wigmore Street in London as a drapers' store. 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.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. 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. 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.
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 By 1883, George Hewitt was the sole owner of the Cheltenham business, Frank and William Debenham having withdrawn to manage the London store as a separate concern.
20th century
The business was incorporated as Debenhams Limited in 1905. A new headquarters building, which was designed by William Wallace and James Glen Sivewright Gibson and built by Trollope & Colls, was completed in Wigmore Street in 1908. 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. 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.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. 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.
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. 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.
In 1985 the company was acquired by the Burton Group. 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. Debenhams demerged from the Burton Group in January 1998 and was once again listed as a separate company on the London Stock Exchange. It expanded under the leadership of Belinda Earl who was appointed CEO in 2000.
21st century
Debenhams opened its largest British store on 4 September 2003, at the new Bull Ring shopping centre in Birmingham. 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. A private consortium named Baroness Retail Limited acquired the company in November 2003, 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.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. In November 2009, Debenhams acquired the Danish department store group Magasin Du Nord for £12.3 million. The company operates six stores in Denmark under the Magasin brand.
In July 2010 Debenhams purchased the 115 Faith concessions trading within its stores, after Faith entered administration. 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. Debenhams agreed to become the anchor store at the Riverside shopping centre in Shrewsbury. By September 2012, the company announced that like-for-like sales had risen by 3.3% in the six months up to that date.
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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 of office space from British Land for 25 years. 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. The refurbishment is due to be completed by February 2014.
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. On 2 January 2014, the company's chief financial officer Simon Herrick resigned, following criticism of his financial decisions. 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 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. 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%. In August 2017, it emerged that Ashley had secured 21% of the shares which gave him over 10% of voting rights in the company.
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.
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 companies new deli-restaurant format Loaf & Bloom, only previously seen at Milton Keynes.
In February 2018, the company announced a reduction of up to 320 store management roles across the business by the end of March. 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.
After considerable media speculation about Debenhams' survival, in 2018 the company announced the largest loss in its history, a pre-tax loss of £491 million, and the closure of up to 50 stores with the potential loss of 4,000 jobs.
On 9 April 2019, the company announced that they had gone into pre-pack administration.
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 in addition to the following stores: 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.
On 6 April 2020, Debenhams confirmed it had filed a notice of intent to appoint administrators. CEO Stefaan Vansteenkiste said it was due to "unprecedented" circumstances caused by the UK coronavirus lockdown and was to "protect business,... employees, and other important stakeholders". On 9 April 2020, the company went into administration.
On 9 April 2020, Debenhams confirmed it planned to close 11 stores in the Republic of Ireland with immediate effect.
In April 2020, Debenhams closed 7 stores in the UK, and will be closing 5 more in the UK when the Coronavirus restrictions are lifted. This included the Croydon store than anchored the shopping mall, Centrale that Debenhams had acquired when they previously took over the Kennards chain of stores, bring to close a trading period of more than 150 years from that site.
In July 2020, Debenhams was set to abandon its property in Princes Street in Edinburgh, which it leases from Legal & General, in order to make room for a £50m hotel. In the same month, Debenhams put itself up for sale to prevent it going into liquidation and hopes to find a buyer by September.
Products and services
In 1993 the company introduced the 'Designers at Debenhams' brand, the creation of then CEO Belinda Earl, Ben de Lisi and Spencer Hawken. The idea put designer names and brands at High Street prices, including Jasper Conran, John Rocha, Butterfly by Matthew Williamson, H! by Henry Holland, Star by Julien Macdonald, Frost French, Janet Reger, Ted Baker, St George by Duffer, Jeff Banks, and Ben de Lisi. The company also sells goods under a number of brand names that it owns. In 2010, Debenhams announced the launch of four new designer names to its fashion range; Jonathan Saunders, Preen, Jonathan Kelsey, and Roksanda Ilincic.branch
Stores also contain concessions whereby other retailers may trade. Brands in stores include Oasis, Coast, Phase Eight and Warehouse. In June 2014, the company announced a trial of Sports Direct concessions in its Harrow and Southsea stores, which if successful would be expanded to other stores. This followed the purchase of a stake in Debenhams by Mike Ashley, the owner of Sports Direct, in January 2014. Later that year, Debenhams also launched trials of Costa Coffee and Mothercare concessions within stores.
In October 2016, the company announced it would begin to focus less on clothing and more on food, beauty products and gifts. It also hired the former lighting buying team of collapsed rival BHS to begin introducing new lighting departments in stores. Debenhams followed this in December 2016 with a plan to discontinue its Betty Jackson Black ladies fashion brand, and significantly reduce its Jeff Banks menswear range in favour of expanding the Hammond & Co. brand.
The company operates retail websites in the UK and Ireland, as well as a mobile-enabled website and mobile apps that allow customers to shop the online range and scan product barcodes in store.
Debenhams provide store card and credit card services, operated by NewDay. Insurance products are also provided under the Debenhams brand by other financial companies. Debenhams also operate bureaux de change in selected stores. The company also operates a loyalty card programme, branded the Debenhams Beauty Club, where customers can collect points with the purchase of health and beauty products.
Stores
United Kingdom, Denmark and the Republic of Ireland
As of June 2020, the company owns and operates 122 stores in the United Kingdom, and Denmark. Stores in Denmark trade under the Magasin du Nord brand. 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".In April 2020, stores operated in the Republic of Ireland by Debenhams Ireland ceased trading with the loss of nearly 2000 jobs.
Stores amalgamated into the group include:
| Store name | Location | Notes |
| Adnitt Brothers | Northampton | Bought 1952; rebranded 1973. |
| Allders | Basildon, Chatham, Clapham Junction, Ilford, Portsmouth, Slough, Sutton and Woking | Clapham Junction traded as Arding & Hobbs |
| V H Bennett | Weymouth | |
| Bobby & Co. | Bournemouth, Cliftonville, Eastbourne, Exeter, High Wycombe, Folkestone, Leamington Spa, Margate, Southport and Torquay | Bought 1928 as part of Drapery Trust. Stores in Bournemouth and Torquay continue to trade as Debenhams. |
| Bonds | Chelmsford | |
| Bon Marché | Gloucester | Bought 1928 as part of Drapery Trust; rebranded 1971. |
| Browns of Chester | Chester and Bangor | Bought 1975. |
| Busbys | Bradford, Harrogate and Ilkley | Bought 1958; rebranded 1973. Bradford closed 1978. Harrogate continues to trade as Debenhams. |
| W & A Chapman | Taunton | |
| Corders | Ipswich | Merged with Footman Pretty when the current store was built. |
| Curl Brothers | Norwich | |
| Drages | High Holborn and Birmingham | Bought 1928 as part of Drapery Trust; closed. |
| Elliston & Cavell | Oxford | Bought 1953. |
| Footman Pretty | Ipswich | Merged with Corders once the current store was built. |
| Griffin & Spalding | Nottingham | Bought 1944. |
| Edward Grey | Birmingham, Dudley, Halesowen, Stourbridge, Walsall and Willenhall | All except Walsall now closed. |
| Handleys | Southsea | |
| John K Hubbard | Worthing | |
| John Yeo | Plymouth | Merged with Spooners. |
| Jermyn & Sons | Kings Lynn | |
| Jones | Bristol | |
| Edwin Jones | Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth | |
| Kennards | Croydon, Redhill, Staines and Wimbledon | Bought 1928 as part of Drapery Trust. |
| Leas | Leicester | |
| William Lefevre | Canterbury | |
| Lewis's | Glasgow and Hanley | |
| Marshall & Snelgrove | Oxford Street, Birmingham, Bradford, Harrogate, Leeds, Leicester, Scarborough, Southport and York | - |
| Joseph Newhouse | Middlesbrough | |
| Nicholsons | St Paul's Churchyard, relocated to Bromley | |
| Owen Owen | Crawley | |
| Pauldens | Manchester and Sheffield | Bought 1920. |
| Pendleburys | Wigan | Bought 1948. |
| Plummer Roddis | Hastings, Andover, Bath, Boscombe, Bournemouth, Brighton, Eastbourne, Folkestone, Guildford, Southampton and Yeovil | |
| Ranbys | Derby | |
| Matthias Robinson | West Hartlepool, Darlington, Leeds and Stockton-on-Tees | Bought 1962. |
| E P Rose | Bedford | |
| Sheriff & Ward | Winchester | |
| Simes | Worcester | |
| J C Smith & Son | Nuneaton, Bedworth and Stratford upon Avon | |
| Sopers | Harrow | |
| Spooners | Plymouth | |
| Stones | Romford | |
| Style & Gerrish | Salisbury | |
| Swan & Edgar | Piccadilly Circus | Bought 1928 as part of Drapery Trust. |
| Taylors | Clifton | |
| Wellsteeds | Reading | |
| Woolland Brothers | Knightsbridge | Bought 1949; closed 1967. |
| Thornton Varley | Kingston-upon-Hull | Bought 1953 |