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UK fast-fashion retailer Boohoo has renamed itself Debenhams Group four years after it bought the business from administration.
The Aim-listed company made the announcement on Tuesday amid an ongoing strategic review, which some analysts have said could lead to a break up of the business.
Debenhams, the online department store, “is the driving force of the business and will lead the group recovery”, the company said.
It also named Phil Ellis as its new finance chief, replacing Stephen Morana with immediate effect.
Boohoo Group, which started out in Manchester in 2006, said the turnaround of Debenhams under chief executive Dan Finley was now complete and would provide “the blueprint for the wider turnaround” of the lossmaking group.
The business is made up of Debenhams, which it bought from administration without the stores in 2021, and Karen Millen, both targeting a slightly older demographic. PrettyLittleThing, Boohoo and BoohooMAN, typically aim to sell to 16 to 25 year olds.
Finley said the turnaround of its younger brands “will take time” and they could become market places, similar to Debenhams, rather than selling only own-label products on their websites.
Boohoo said that Debenhams was growing rapidly, with a stock and capital-light model that was profitable and cash generative.
According to a trading update on Tuesday, total group revenue fell from £1.5bn to £1.2bn in the year to February, driven by weaker performance of its youth brands.
The company has lost almost 90 per cent of its value over the past five years after a boom in trading during the pandemic dwindled. It has had to grapple with falling sales, cost inflation and fierce competition from rivals such as Shein and Temu.
It has also had to fend off a recent attempt by Mike Ashley’s Frasers — its largest shareholder — to orchestrate a boardroom coup.
Frasers has previously called Boohoo “mismanaged” and criticised a £222mn refinancing, which it called a “catastrophe”.
Boohoo said on Tuesday that its business review was ongoing and a further update would be provided with its full-year results.
