Department store chain’s demise can’t simply be put down to high street crisis and online competition
- Debenhams stores set to close with 12,000 jobs at risk
- Chain ‘never recovered from private equity ownership’
What went wrong at Debenhams? Start with this statement in the 2006 annual report, the year of the company’s return to the stock market after three years of private equity ownership. Rob Templeman, the chief executive at the time, declared: “Although Debenhams is a well established and respected brand, we only have 132 stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland, which is substantially less than some of our competitors. We believe that there is the potential to increase the number of our department stores up to 240.”
Now that the business has failed, in large part because it has too much physical space, the breezy view of expansion in the old days is extraordinary. It was a different era, of course. The financial crash had yet to happen, online-only retail specialists were still in start-up mode and department stores, strange as it sounds now, were enjoying a revival as fashion leaders.