Kidswear drive at Debenhams

Debenhams is aiming to take market share from mid-market kidswear retailers such as Next with a new own-label kidswear brand in autumn next year.

Chief executive Rob Templeman told Drapers that he wanted to improve the business's market share on kidswear, which lagged behind its women's and men's wear offer.
He said: "Women's and men's wear have a market share of about 4%. On kidswear it's lower at 2.6% or 2.7%. We need to have more in the mid-market price range; we're getting that customer into stores, so we need to have something for them."

Templeman said the new own label, as yet unnamed, would complement the existing kidswear own labels, by being at a lower price point and focusing on staples such as denim and T-shirts. He added that it would be created by the kidswear team.

Debenhams' kidswear  offer  includes Baker by Ted Baker and own labels Red Herring and Tigerlily.

Templeman said the department store group gained 0.3% in total clothing market share for the year to August 30, making increases across all its clothing sectors. He said that simplifying the clothing offer and making bold statements with key brands had worked well.

Pre-tax profits fell 16.9% to £105.9 million for the year ended August 30, and like-for-like sales dropped 0.9%. Total sales were up 1.3% to £2.3 billion over the period.