Debenhams Oxford St store
(Picture: PA)Precisely who ends up with what at Debenhams is anyone’s guess.
A takeover by JD Sports? Another swoop from Sports Direct’s Mike Ashley? A takeout managed by restructuring financier Hilco?
Amid the briefing and counterbriefing to the media, it’s hard to gauge who is really in pole position.
But one thing seems patently clear: nobody will want all 124 stores.
Arguably, nobody will want any Debenhams-branded stores at all.
For, in the post-Covid world, when even your granny shops online, it’s hard to see how a second-rate department store chain is going to survive.
Sure, they may still go to John Lewis to try before they buy.
Maybe they’ll pop their heads into M&S.
But Debenhams? I fear not.
It’s not just Debenhams that this applies to. It’s hard to see a long term future for Ashley’s House of Fraser either.
Stores like this are simply too big, too undifferentiated to survive the shakeout of the High Street that has been so brutally accelerated by the pandemic.
Ashley has already closed five HoFs and will close more soon.
Other HoFs have seen space given over to his other brands — Frasers, and even GAME. But there remains far too much space even for Ashley to make money from.
Is JD really serious about wanting 124 Debs?
Doubtful.
Its name’s surely being talked up to squeeze more cash out of Ashley.
Debs is a break-up job.
A few may survive, but the bulk will be cherry picked by Ashley, JD and other High Street winners like Next with the rest being put to other uses. Flats, hotels, fitness centres, or other retail and leisure destinations.
Another case of Covid putting economic Darwinism on fast forward.
