Technology

Posted on September 26, 2016 by staff

BHS website to relaunch with ‘new online platform’

Technology

Iconic British brand BHS is to relaunch this week as a dedicated online retailer.

The struggling retailer closed the last of its 163 stores last month, taking job losses to 11,000.

It is to employ 84 people, many of whom were BHS staff before the company went into administration in April.

“We are thrilled to be relaunching this iconic brand back into the UK,” said David Anderson, managing director of BHS International, which was formed by the Qatari Al Mana Group after it acquired BHS.com and its international franchise business.

“It had a loyal customer base with around 1.2 million British shoppers who bought from us online, and for our relaunch we have managed to secure many of the products they liked the most.

“We have developed a new specially designed online platform for our UK business so we are not inheriting any legacy systems, and we were able to recruit the majority of people who worked on the profitable online and international operations of BHS before it went into administration.”

The company, headquartered in London, will focus on its “best-sellers” following the relaunch on Thursday 29 September, with 75 per cent of the products which were available on BHS.com earlier this year made available again.

They will include bedroom, bathroom, cushion and lighting ranges.

In years gone by, British Home Stores was as synonymous with the High Street as Marks and Spencer and Woolworths.
Marks and Spencer is going strong but Woolworths, which entered administration in 2009, was dissolved in 2015.

Pureplay online retailer Shop Direct bought the online rights to Woolies in 2009 and the website now redirects to Shop Direct’s popular Very.co.uk site.

Very.co.uk generated sales of more than £1 billion for the first time this year as its parent company announced a 44 per cent increase in profits before tax.