[5] In November 2020, Debenhams' main concession operator Arcadia also entered administration, leading to the collapse of talks with JD Sports and Frasers Group over a potential rescue.

Boohoo relaunched the website as Debenhams.com on 12 April 2021 under its own company, Debenhams.com Online Limited, when Debenhams' stores reopened to begin closing down sales following a relaxation of some COVID-19 restrictions.

The shop was later renamed Cavendish House and sold drapery, silks, haberdashery, millinery, hosiery, lace, and family mourning goods.

[11] By 1823, Clark & Debenham had opened a small drapery business at 3 Promenade Rooms, Cheltenham, selling a selection of silks, muslins, shawls, gloves, lace and fancy goods.

By 1883, George Hewitt was the sole owner of the Cheltenham business, Frank and William Debenham having withdrawn to manage the London store as a separate concern.

[12] A new headquarters building, which was designed by William Wallace and James Glen Sivewright Gibson[13] and built by Trollope & Colls, was completed in Wigmore Street in 1908.

It was because of the debts owed to them through their wholesaling deals that they acquired control over Marshall & Snelgrove at Oxford Street and Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge in 1919.

[18] In 1929, as part of his fraudulent plan to raise the cash for his deal to purchase United Steel, Hatry forged £478,100 of shares in the Drapery Trust, but by September 1929 he had confessed to his crimes.

[19] The connection of Clarence Hatry to Debenhams plunged the company into a crisis once his finances started to unravel, in addition to the Drapery Trust dividend collapsing and its export business diving due to the economy.

[27][28] In 1972, United Drapery Stores made an offer to purchase Debenhams, along with interest from Sears plc and Tesco, but were fought off by chairman Sir Anthony Burney.

However the business declined in the intense marketplace and in 1979 the chain was sold to Allied Suppliers who converted the Cater stores into their Presto format.

[38] It was alleged by Caroline Lucas MP in a debate in Westminster Hall that Bob Lambert, a then undercover police officer, planted the fire bomb that caused £340,000 worth of damage to the Harrow branch of Debenhams in 1987.

[48] A private consortium named Baroness Retail Limited, comprising CVC Capital Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity and management,[49] acquired the company in November 2003 [50] in a leveraged buyout, for which the consortium only provided £600m of equity and added £1.2bn in debt.

According to The Financial Times,[51] the consortium "then extracted more than £1bn via property sale and leaseback agreements",[52] before returning the business to a listing on the London Stock Exchange in 2006.

[64] The company began a refurbishment of its flagship store in Oxford Street in 2013, which involved the installation of 180,000 aluminium tiles on the exterior of the building that appears to ripple with the wind.

The 80,000 sq ft Stevenage store was opened on 24 August 2017 at Roaring Meg Retail and Leisure Park by Celebrity fashion designer Julien MacDonald and local hero Jean Robinson, who had won a competition for the privilege.

The store was the first to be designed under the vision of CEO Sergio Bucher, with a new layout and format with the emphasis on encouraging people to stay longer.

This included the recently opened Wolverhampton store plus Altrincham, Ashford, Birmingham Fort, Canterbury, Chatham, Eastbourne, Folkestone, Great Yarmouth, Guildford, Kirkcaldy, Orpington, Slough, Southport, Southsea, Staines, Stockton-on-Tees, Walton-on-Thames, Wandsworth, Welwyn Garden City, Wimbledon and Witney.

[81][82] CEO Stefaan Vansteenkiste said it was due to "unprecedented" circumstances caused by the COVID-19 lockdown and was to "protect [the] business, ... employees, and other important stakeholders".

[86] In July 2020, Debenhams was set to abandon its property in Princes Street in Edinburgh, which it leased from Legal & General, in order to make room for a £50m hotel.

[7] With the company in administration and on the verge of liquidation, on 6 December 2020, Mike Ashley's Frasers Group was reported to be in talks to acquire Debenhams,[93][94][95] though it was later reported that Ashley was mainly interested in using empty Debenhams stores to expand his other chains, including House of Fraser, Sports Direct and Flannels; taking 'vacant possession' would avoid redundancy costs for existing staff.

They included the flagship Oxford Street store in London, plus those in Worcester, Weymouth, Staines, Harrogate and Portsmouth; the move involved 320 job losses.

[97] On 25 January 2021, it was announced that Boohoo had bought the Debenhams brand and website for £55m, but did not retain any of the remaining 118 stores, meaning the loss of up to 12,000 jobs.

[100][101] In 1993 the company introduced the 'Designers at Debenhams' brand, the creation of then CEO Belinda Earl, Ben de Lisi and Spencer Hawken.

[102] The idea introduced designer names and brands such as Jasper Conran, John Rocha, Butterfly by Matthew Williamson, H!

by Henry Holland, Star by Julien Macdonald, Frost French, Janet Reger, Ted Baker, St George by Duffer, Jeff Banks, and Ben de Lisi.

[108] Debenhams followed this in December 2016 with a plan to discontinue its Betty Jackson Black ladies fashion brand, and significantly reduce its Jeff Banks menswear range in favour of expanding the Hammond & Co.

In 2006 Debenhams exited Malaysia but in 2008 it returned after finding a new master franchiser, the stores were still operating in 2019 at The Curve and Gurney Paagon but later closed.

[122][123] The first store in the Philippines opened in 2005, the brand was previously operated by the SSI Group and were located at Shangri-la Plaza, Abreeza, and a shop-in-shop inside Rustan's Glorietta 3.

[137][138] Another store opened in Pakistan in the same year and the last location at Dolmen Mall Clifton in Karachi closed in September 2020 and Debenhams left the country.