British department store Debenhams closes and 12,000 employees will lose their jobs

The emblematic British chain of department stores Debenhams, in suspension of payments since last April, will definitively close its doors once all its stocks have been liquidated and, according to a source close to the dossier, it will lay off its almost 12,000 employees.

The coronavirus pandemic and the multiple lockdowns and trade restrictions imposed to combat it accelerated the collapse of this British business institution, which before the health crisis was already facing financial difficulties due to the boom in online commerce and changes in business patterns. consumption, symbolizing the crisis of physical stores in the United Kingdom.

With the disappearance of this chain, whose origins date back to the end of the 18th century, a page in the history of British trade will be closed.

“Debenhams is a business with a long history and is one of the best known in the UK in the field of fashion and beauty” with “some 300 million visits a year to its website”, noted the textile group Boohoo. that it will acquire for 55 million pounds (75 million dollars, 62 million euros) the brand and its business on the internet, including “customer data”.

However, the rest, its almost 125 stores, are destined to disappear, when the “liquidation of stocks” ends, which “will continue for several weeks” and whose “proceeds will go to creditors,” Debenhams administrators reported. it’s a statement.

A source close to the dossier, contacted by AFP, specified that the shops will reopen once the third lockdown in which the United Kingdom is currently over, but they will definitively close once their reserves have been sold, laying off their close to 12,000 employees.

“Clearly, this is a setback for people who have been waiting for news about their future,” Labor and Pensions Minister Therese Coffey told BBC radio, assuring that her ministry will be “there to help people in this. Difficult moment”.

The department store chain had filed for bankruptcy in April and announced in December that it would begin a liquidation process after talks for an acquisition by sporting goods chain JD Sports fell through.

Debenhams was one of the last department store chains to remain in business after a series of bankruptcies in recent years in the UK, including BHS and House of Fraser.