// Debenhams to create new division for premium brands on its website
// Discussions with potential brand partners are underway, although the retailer declined to reveal price points for the premium brands it’s targeting
Debenhams is set to unveil a new division for premium brands on its website.
The Boohoo Group-owned retailer has been repositioning itself as a digital department store since being snapped up in a £55m deal in January 2021.
Its website currently houses over 1,500 brands across beauty, fashion and homeware, and in recent months, the marketplace has been on a premium push, adding Estée Lauder in March and MAC in May.
Drapers reports that a new premium fashion division will launch on its website later this year and discussions with potential brand partners are underway, although Debenhams declined to reveal price points for the premium brands it is targeting.
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Chief executive Dan Finley told the title: “With premium brands, they will have an elevated presence [on our website] and we want to be the extension of their direct to to consumer strategy.”
“The great thing about Debenhams is that it’s a marketplace-led and commission-based business. We are not own brand-first. We have to showcase and sell brands at their best and it has to be win-win because we don’t make commission if we don’t sell the brands.
“So we are focused on building our proposition to the consumer, principally focused on fashion, home and beauty, with a combination of everyday brands and premium brands. We want to build it back bigger, bolder and better as the great British digital department store.”
Last week, it was revealed that the unsecured creditors of Debenhams will not recover the £1.3bn owed to them before the retailer’s collapse in 2020.
According to recent data from EG, 73% of former Debenhams units remain empty.
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