Debenhams stores in Birmingham and Leicester to close permanently
Debenhams has announced its stores in Birmingham and Leicester will not reopen after lockdown.
The stores are closing along with three others across the country, with the loss of 1,400 jobs.
All the sites affected are in Hammerson-owned shopping centres, including the Bullring in Birmingham and Highcross in Leicester.
Debenhams says despite "best efforts" it had been unable to agreeterms with Hammerson to reopen the branches, after falling into administration last month.
In Birmingham, the loss of Debenhams will change the look of the Bullring shopping centre. We had a look through our archive and found this report from 2003 when the 'new look Bullring' was still being built. It had taken three years, cost £500m and was the biggest building site in Europe.
Hammerson has announced that NEXT is to take over space left vacant in the five stores closing with beauty halls.
Beauty Hall from NEXT will replace Debenhams’ beauty halls in Bullring & Grand Central, Birmingham, The Oracle, Reading, Highcross, Leicester, Silverburn, Glasgow and Centrale in Croydon.
They believe that Health & Beauty has been one of the strongest areas for retail in recent years, particularly in terms of people actually going into stores.
In January, Debenhams announced that 19 of its worst performing stores would shut, affecting sites in Birmingham and Wolverhampton.
Last month it closed a further seven outlets including Stratford-up-Avon and Leamington Spa, resulting in the loss of 422 jobs.
It company says it looks forward to reopening its remaining stores when lockdown measures are eased.
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