Boohoo Group is forging ahead with its rebrand to Debenhams Group despite losing a vote on its holding company name due to the opposition of its single biggest shareholder, Frasers Group. 

The vote affects the name change for the Jersey-based holding company and saw the shareholder meeting to vote on the proposal late last week continuing the ongoing battle between Boohoo/Debenhams and Frasers.

The basic facts are that the business for practical purposes has now rebranded itself Debenhams Group, although only getting around 62% support for the Jersey holding company to change from Boohoo Group plc to Debenhams Group plc meant that particular resolution didn’t pass. The resolution needed two-thirds approval to get through and as not all shareholders voted, Frasers’ roughly 29% stake actually accounted for around 38% of the votes cast. 

Yet Debenhams is what it will be known as to everyone but its shareholders and even with that situation, its ticker symbol for trading on the stock exchange is changing from BOO to DEBS.

Boohoo/Debenhams said in a stock exchange release: “It is no surprise to the board that Frasers, a major competitor of the group, has voted against the resolution, and continues to act in its own self-interest. Whilst the resolution was not passed, we continue forward as Debenhams Group.”

The rebrand was announced earlier this month and comes as Boohoo drives through major change. As well as relaunching its PrettyLittleThing business with a more upmarket profile, it’s tapping into the turnaround success of the Debenhams business that it acquired out of administration.

Debenhams is the fastest-growing part of Boohoo, is the careful steward of other acquired brands such as Oasis, Warehouse and Coast and is making the most of a marketplace model that the rest of the business wants to adopt.

But Mike Ashley, the majority owner of Frasers Group, is clearly not happy. And that’s perhaps unsurprising. He’d built up a stake of almost 30% in Debenhams when it was stock exchange-listed last decade, spending around £150 million. But he was forced to look on as the once-dominant department stores company rebuffed his efforts to get involved and ultimately failed. 

He also didn’t bid for the under-administration company, saying the data provided about the business was “woefully inadequate” and that his firm couldn’t bid on such vague information. Boohoo eventually won the prize for £55 million, much less than Ashley had spent on his stake.

He’s since built up that chunky shareholding in Boohoo itself but in recent periods Frasers has failed in attempts to oust Boohoo’s co-founder Mahmud Kamani from the board and to get Ashley onto the board.

Frasers hasn’t yet commented on the name change situation but one thing seems clear — the battle isn’t over yet.

Primark was rocked on Monday as owner Associated British Foods said that the boss of the Anglo-Irish budget fashion, beauty and homewares retailer, Paul Marchant, has quit with immediate effect. This comes after an allegation made about his behaviour towards an individual in a social environment.

It’s a big deal for both Primark and ABF with the retail chain contributing about half of the profits for its parent company and that strength seemingly set to expand as it rolls out more stores across Europe and the US.

The group, which is to release its next set of results — for the first half — late next month, said Eoin Tonge, ABF finance director, will act as Primark CEO on an interim basis. And Joana Edwards, ABF group financial controller, will step into his finance role for now. 

The company stressed that “both executives have the experience to perform these roles well”. Tonge has been at ABF since January 2023 and before that was at M&S, for almost three years, joining at CFO and becoming group CFO/chief strategy officer.

ABF had earlier launched an investigation that was carried out by external lawyers, into an allegation made by the unnamed individual about his behaviour towards her. Marchant “cooperated with the investigation, acknowledged his error of judgement and accepts that his actions fell below the standards expected by ABF. He has made an apology to the individual concerned, the ABF board and also to his Primark colleagues and others connected to the business”.

ABF CEO George Weston said: “I am immensely disappointed… we believe that high standards of integrity are essential. Acting responsibly is the only way to build and manage a business over the long term. Colleagues and others must be treated with respect and dignity. Our culture has to be, and is, bigger than any one individual.”

It’s a major disaster for Marchant himself who’s led Primark for over a decade and seen it go from strength to strength, despite the interruption to its business during the pandemic. 

Before jointing the company in 2009, he was COO of New Look for three years and prior to that spent eight years as trading director of Debenhams so is clearly a fixture in the UK fashion industry.