Metropol

Martin Phillp wrote:Gift vouchers are being accepted for 50% of their total value.

Not quite. You just have to spend the same amount in cash.

BHS has posted a note at tills saying it will accept gift vouchers purchased in the last two years, but only for 50% of the value of the purchase.
So if a customer has a £10 voucher, they must buy at least £20 worth of items to use it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36134165

Austin Reed goes into administration.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36137226

Dr Lobster* wrote:i think there is more to the collapse than asset stripping and bad management - bhs seriously lost it's way a long time ago.

The chain was certainly in decline prior to Green purchasing it, but between then and him selling the chain was starved of investment and thus went from having potential to being a total basket case. Green's family made millions if not billions out of a failing business while the ground level staff were essentially being robbed of their future employment and pensions. It's sickening.

WillPS wrote:

Dr Lobster* wrote:i think there is more to the collapse than asset stripping and bad management - bhs seriously lost it's way a long time ago.

The chain was certainly in decline prior to Green purchasing it, but between then and him selling the chain was starved of investment and thus went from having potential to being a total basket case. Green's family made millions if not billions out of a failing business while the ground level staff were essentially being robbed of their future employment and pensions. It's sickening.

And too little, too late too.

Contrast two London stores. Oxford Street (which has been sold to a Polish company and would have closed anyway) looked modern, had the current branding etc, while Surrey Quays, just across the river from Canary Wharf is a 90s throwback with the branding from that era and the interior which hasn't changed since the shopping centre opened, which I think was in 1990/91?

BHS Cafes are still great, Mind you there only 4 left in Scotland, not sure how many down south. That was one of the main reason I ever visited a BHS. Good breakfasts. The lunch course was also good vaule.

WillPS wrote:

Dr Lobster* wrote:i think there is more to the collapse than asset stripping and bad management - bhs seriously lost it's way a long time ago.

The chain was certainly in decline prior to Green purchasing it, but between then and him selling the chain was starved of investment and thus went from having potential to being a total basket case. Green's family made millions if not billions out of a failing business while the ground level staff were essentially being robbed of their future employment and pensions. It's sickening.

BHS has been a victim of bad mismanagement for about 30-40 years.

I must admit I haven't looked into this in too much detail, but surely Green made money from Arcadia as a whole, rather than BHS directly?

Whataday wrote:

WillPS wrote:

Dr Lobster* wrote:i think there is more to the collapse than asset stripping and bad management - bhs seriously lost it's way a long time ago.

The chain was certainly in decline prior to Green purchasing it, but between then and him selling the chain was starved of investment and thus went from having potential to being a total basket case. Green's family made millions if not billions out of a failing business while the ground level staff were essentially being robbed of their future employment and pensions. It's sickening.

BHS has been a victim of bad mismanagement for about 30-40 years.

I must admit I haven't looked into this in too much detail, but surely Green made money from Arcadia as a whole, rather than BHS directly?

That may be, but Green purchased a business making operating profits with a pension surplus, extracted cash and valuable assets then left it as hopeless loss making entity with a crippling pension deficit (almost equal, coincidentally, to the money he had extracted through dividends from that business).

No, BHS was never included in the Arcadia group - probably because Green's plan was not to hold on to the business but sell it on (at the time he bought it there was interest from other groups, and about 10 years ago he tried to flog them to ASDA and Debenhams without success).

WillPS wrote:No, BHS was never included in the Arcadia group - probably because Green's plan was not to hold on to the business but sell it on (at the time he bought it there was interest from other groups, and about 10 years ago he tried to flog them to ASDA and Debenhams without success).

BHS was integrated into Arcadia in 2009.

Never quite fully, though - Arcadia multi-store gift cards weren't accepted at BHS, and BHS gift cards couldn't be used at other Arcadia stores.

Administrators are closing 120 Austin Reed stores with 1,000 job losses.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36416617