Retail Acquisitions, the owner of BHS, has secured a loan of £10m from a subsidiary of Gordon Brothers to support the growth of BHS Food.
BHS Food was originally piloted in 2014, just before Sir Philip Green sold BHS to Retail Acquisitions in March 2015. This arm of the business has done better than expected, partly as a result of the chain‘s previous loan of £65m in September which enabled a company-wide turnaround.
However, the department store chain continues to lose ground to the likes of John Lewis and Debenhams. BHS‘s most recent financial results, for the year ending August 30, revealed a loss of £85m. With this new loan, BHS hopes to accelerate the rollout of its food, even if this latest £10m comes from the company that tried, and failed, to rescue Blockbuster.
“BHS is having to sell the family silver to keep the business going and it is trying where it can to extract value from its real estate assets,” a property and retail specialist told The Times.
Retail Acquisitions also hired KPMH to help restructure the chain, with plans to strategically reduce the 170 store estate.
