Boohoo Boss That Bought The Debenhams Brand Now Controls a £5BILLION Empire

Boohoo Boss That Bought The Debenhams Brand Now Controls a £5BILLION Empire.

BOOHOO BOSS Mahmud Kamani who last week bought the Debenhams brand in a new death knell for the high street now controls a £5BILLION empire.

Kamani, who ­pocketed £100million last year, is now in talks to scoop up Philip Green’s defuncted Arcadia brands Burton, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis for a reported £25million.

Crucially, however, his company did not snap up the stores themselves, instead leaving thousands of shop staff facing the dole and devastating Britain’s already struggling town centres. And in a further blow to ­traditional shopping areas, Boohoo’s property arm is now buying stricken stores at rock-bottom prices to turn them into luxury flats and offices — at a vast profit.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing in any of these ­activities — but critics say it is helping to destroy Britains beloved high streets. The acquisition of Debenhams, one of Britain’s best-loved brands, highlights the meteoric rise of Boohoo, which only started trading in 2006 and after 15 years has attained a £5billion market valuation.

Besides Boohoo and Debenhams, it owns the brands boohooMan, PrettyLittleThing, Nasty Gal, MissPap, Karen Millen and Coast. But its success comes amid widespread criticism of its business dealings. In December, Mahmud was hauled before a Parliamentary committee to explain why his suppliers paid illegally low wages.

Staff at a supplier to Nasty Gal were being paid just £3.50 an hour, or less than half the minimum wage of £8.72 for over-25s, it was discovered. Factories in Leicester supplying the company were accused of putting the health of employees at risk during the lockdown with ­inadequate social distancing, in a scandal that wiped £1billion off the company’s value, public outrage being partly blamed.

As the crisis continues then further closures on the high street are expected. Surely, isn’t it time the government stepped in to stop the carnage? Many industry leaders are lobbying their MP’s to step into the battle to save the high streets before they become another casualty in the war against the virus. They had better do it sooner rather than later, the way things are going there will be no high street left to save. TW

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