Struggling Debenhams to cut nearly 100 jobs

Debenhams is to swing the axe on up to 90 staff as it enters redundancy talks with hundreds of workers at its fashion and home departments.

The struggling department store chain, which is undergoing a major cost-cutting drive, has put hundreds of roles into redundancy consultation.

“We announced our intention to restructure our organisation around three business units: beauty and beauty services, fashion and home, and food and events earlier this year,” Debenhams said in a statement.

“Our work to create a simplified and consistent structure across these units, reducing complexity and driving efficiency in order to deliver our Debenhams Redesigned strategy, is continuing.”

In January the retailer announced plans to ramp up cost savings, with another £10 million earmarked for this financial year and £20 million extra annually under a reorganisation led by chief executive Sergio Bucher.

The department store chain then went on to slash 320 store management roles in February.

In June, Debenhams issued its third profit warning this year as trading came in “below plan”.

To compound matters, Debenhams is also the subject of takeover talk, with speculation building that Mike Ashley is set to merge it with his newly acquired House of Fraser.

Mr Ashley owns just under 30% of Debenhams, close to the threshold at which he must launch an official takeover bid.