Boohoo shares surged on Thursday as the group outlined progress in its turnaround strategy, as the Debenhams brand offsets tumbling sales for the group’s youth brands.
Boohoo Group, which now trades as Debenhams, has reported significant progress in its strategic transformation, with all brands now profitable on an adjusted EBITDA basis as the company pivots towards a marketplace-led business model.
The group posted adjusted EBITDA of £20.0m for the six months ended 31 August 2025, up 5% on the prior year period.
Crucially, it achieved a positive adjusted EBIT of £1.8m, compared with a £9.2m loss a year earlier. An EBIT of £1.8m isn’t anything to shout about, but in the context of Boohoo’s woes, it’s a big win.
Boohoo shares surged 25% on the news.
At the heart of the turnaround sits the Debenhams brand, which delivered 20% GMV growth and 50% EBITDA growth in the half, achieving an EBITDA margin of around 15%.
The company said it now has “clear line of sight” to Debenhams, reaching £1bn in GMV and over £50m in EBITDA within three years.
The marketplace model, which is described as “stock lite, capital lite, margin rich and highly cash generative”, now accounts for 32% of GMV, up from 19% a year ago.
The partner ecosystem has doubled to around 20,000, with all group brands now marketplace-enabled through proprietary technology.
Youth brands Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing, and MAN’s sales performance was dismal, but the group was that these particular brands are undergoing a “significant multi-year transformation”. The market is giving them the benefit of the doubt today.
Whilst revenue is being allowed to “right size”, the focus on profit and cash generation is bearing fruit, with GMV declines improving quarter on quarter.
“First-half losses have slimmed thanks to a significant streamlining of the business, which has seen its fixed cost base almost halve in size,” said Aarin Chiekrie, equity analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown.
“But the bottom line is that the fast-fashion group remains loss-making, and while CEO Dan Finley probably needs to be given more time to properly execute his strategy change, the near-term sales outlook doesn’t seem to be improving much.
“Boohoo is the right term to describe how its investors must be feeling now, with its shares down around 96% over the last five years. Despite this, and in typical poor corporate governance fashion for boohoo, it has sidestepped its investors by announcing a new compensation scheme for the management team, without seeking shareholder approval. As a result, the pressure really is on management to deliver on its turnaround scheme.”