UAE: After Debenhams, River Island Middle East stores to shut as well

Shopaholics, take note. After closing 33 stores across the UK earlier this year, British high-street fashion brand River Island is shutting shop in the Middle East as well. This comes after another UK-based brand, Debenhams, announced that they would be closing their multi-brand stores in the UAE.

Both River Island and Debenhams are operated by the Kuwait-based Alshaya Group. Before closing, the brands informed customers of ongoing sale and special offers that they could avail.

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"As we prepare to say goodbye to our River Island stores, we warmly invite you to visit us and take advantage of our Special Offers.⁣ Thank you for being a part of our journey," River Island Middle East posted on social media. The brand has stores in the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar, will discounts up to 75 per cent.

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On the same day, Debenhams posted a similar message on Instagram, "As we prepare to say goodbye to our Debenhams stores, we warmly invite you to visit us and take advantage of our Special Offers.⁣ Thank you for being a part of our journey.⁣"

A customer, sad to see the brand shut stores, commented, "Very sad to know this, Debenhams is one of the best showroom for all varieties of cloths with reasonable prices & quality."

Debenhams already closed its doors in two major destinations, Dubai Mall and Mirdiff City Centre, in June. Their Mall of the Emirates store is still functional at the moment.

So far, the Debenhams brand has offline department stores exclusively in the MENA region, operated by Alshaya Group with a licence from Boohoo Group plc. In other parts of the world, Debenhams ceased to operate its physical stores in 2021.

The Alshaya Group also operates popular household retail stores in the UAE, Pottery Barn and West Elm, which are closing their stores in Dubai and Abu Dhabi as well.

River Island closed 33 stores across the UK after the High Court approved the fashion retailer's restructuring plans. The High Street brand had said that a customer shift towards online shopping and higher operating costs had contributed to multi-million pound losses, according to the BBC.

Bahni Bandyopadhyay

bahni@khaleejtimes.com