Debenhams was Britain's oldest department store — and it went into liquidation in 2021

Debenhams, founded in 1778, was one of Britain's oldest and most iconic department store chains, operating 165 stores across the UK and Ireland. The stores were a fixture of British high streets for over two centuries.

But Debenhams faced a perfect storm of challenges: the shift to online shopping, soaring business rates (property taxes) on physical retail, an unsustainable debt burden from a 2003 private equity buyout, and a failure to invest in its online presence. The company entered administration twice (2019 and 2020) before going into liquidation in January 2021.

All 165 stores were closed, and approximately 12,000 jobs were lost. The Debenhams brand was acquired by Boohoo for £55 million — a fraction of the company's former value. The case illustrated how a heritage brand can be destroyed by the combination of structural change (online shopping), financial engineering (private equity debt) and strategic failure (underinvestment in digital).