Department store business Debenhams has announced a turnaround plan which is expected to lead to the closure of as many as ten underperforming stores and eleven warehouses. The announcement came as CEO Sergio Bucher, who stepped into the retailer’s top role last October, revealed plans to improve the chain’s appeal and improve its online offering.
The changes will also see a number of the retailer’s in-house brands retired, rationalisation of its international activities and a de-cluttering of its stores. All this comes during a period of realisation by many department store operators in the UK and overseas that their offerings are no longer a magnet for the consumers they are trying to attract and that work needs to be done to improve the full multichannel proposition in order to restore market position.
“Our customers are changing the way they shop and we are changing too, ” commented Bucher. “Shopping with Debenhams should be effortless, reliable and fun whichever channel our customers use. If we deliver differentiated and distinctive brand, services and experiences both online and in stores, our customers will visit us more frequently and, having simplified our operations to make us more efficient, we will be able to serve them better and make better use of our resources.”
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