Debenhams International Expansion Strategy Essays

Debenhams International Expansion Strategy Essays Debenhams International Expansion Strategy Essay Debenhams International Expansion Strategy Essay DEBENHAMS INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION STRATEGY History Debenhams is a chain of department stores based in the United Kingdom. Debenhams Retail Plc is part of the Debenhams Group of Companies. The company started as a retail outlet in 1778 with a nice British gentleman, William Franks and a fancy boutique: expensive fashionable clothing, gloves and bow ties, only for high class London society and grew to acquire other stores in town and cities in the UK such as Pauldins in Manchester and Browns of Chester. Most stores retained their former identities until a unified corporate image was rolled out across the stores. Debenhams was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1928 and continued to expand. In 1985 the company was acquired by the Burton Group. At this point the company owned 65 stores. Debenhams demerged in 1998 and was once again listed as a separate company. Nowadays Debenhams is a business listed on the stock market, with about 200 stores in UK and worldwide and an annual turnover of 2,3 billion GBP, especially after the quick expansion through the 90’s. Debenhams stores are departmentalized as follows: Health and Beauty; Women’s wear; Menswear; Fashion Accessories; Young Fashion; Home; Children’s wear; Media Entertainment (ME depts. n all stores closing early 2004); Food Services; Customer Accounts. Debenhams stores vary greatly in size from country to country and from city to city; smaller stores do not have a full range of departments. A major source of business is concessions. These are shop-in-shops which can be found in most Debenhams stores such as Young Fa shion companies Oasis and Ladieswear outlet Evans. The companys innovation has proved successful by introducing branding into its mens and ladieswear lines. The Designers at Debenhams include Jasper Conran , John Richmond and John Rocha. In 2002 the Nectar loyalty card was introduced with Debenhams as a major sponsor. This card now allows customers to collect loyalty points from a range of retailers such as Sainsburys, BP, Barclaycard, Vodafone and Ford amongst others. Despite some criticism, the Debenhams Account Card is still a major source of revenue for the company ensuring customer loyalty and targeted mailings. The company was taken over by a private consortium later in 2003 and their exact future is uncertain in terms of future development.