Debenhams and Revolution unveil new beauty collaboration
Fast-fashion retailer Debenhams has formalised a royalty-based licensing partnership with Revolution Beauty to develop and distribute beauty and fragrance products across Debenhams’ brand portfolio.
The first collections are expected to launch ahead of Christmas, featuring fragrance and gifting lines for PrettyLittleThing, Karen Millen, and boohooMAN. While further beauty and fragrance launches are planned across a number of Debenhams Group brands.
Under the deal, London-listed Revolution Beauty assumes full responsibility for product development, manufacturing, and global distribution, while Debenhams, part of the Boohoo Group, collects an industry-standard royalty based on sales while retaining ultimate approval rights over products, packaging, marketing, and retail channel decisions.
Dan Finley, chief executive of Debenhams, said: “Beauty is one of the most compelling category opportunities available to us and Revolution Beauty has the capability and relationships to bring tailored collections to market across the full portfolio”.
Tom Allsworth, chief executive of Revolution Beauty, added, “By combining the strength of Debenhams Group’s brands with Revolution’s expertise, we believe these licences can become a significant growth opportunity for both businesses.”
This comes after Debenhams shares soared last week, as the fast-fashion retailer returned to growth, suggesting that the group’s long-awaited turnaround had begun to take hold.
Its shares plummeted as much as 20 per cent in February when it announced an equity raise, though the scheme took £40m, exceeding the initial target.
Debenhams has faced a “hard slog” in its recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. But the group has had a turnaround plan in place to simplify operations, cut major costs, and integrate all the brands into a single ecosystem.
Last week, the cosmetics firm Revolution Beauty had good news after it told investors it was no longer under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over a 2023 probe into its accounts following concerns, including those over certain historical sales, inventory provisioning methods, and personal loans made by a former CEO.