The much awaited sale of Debenhams has finally happened!
The ailing British fashion label – along with its brands, website and intellectual property rights – has been bought by Boohoo for £55 million. The deal, however, doesn’t include Debenhams’ stores.
Besides leaving out 120+ Debenhams stores, the deal also excludes financial services and stock that will continue to be with Debenhams.
What’s, however, disheartening is that the sale would now leave all 12,000 employees of Debenhams jobless. At least that’s what reports indicate as of now!
Already, several jobs have been hit at Arcadia Group and the sale of Debenhams is set to add to employment worries across the UK.
Also Read: Arcadia’s hopes dashed as Next pulls out of race
The website of Debenhams will now relaunch on Boohoo Group’s platform in early spring 2021. However, before the relaunch, Debenhams’ website will run for agreed period of time before the operations are shut down.
Notably, the transaction was done through Boohoo Group’s current cash balance, which was £386.9 million on 31 December 2020.
2021 seems to have started better for Boohoo Group, which earlier this month also reported a 40 per cent Y-o-Y jump in sales for the 4 months ended 31 December 2020. And now with this sale, Debenhams’ brands like Maine and Faith will further enhance Boohoo’s brand portfolio.
Also Read: Boohoo sales shoot up 40% Y-o-Y to £660.8 million
