Sale of business not ruled out for BHS

Sir Philip Green, owner of Arcadia Group and BHS, has stated that he will not rule out a sale of the BHS business.

Sir Philip stated that it would be “idiotic” to state categorically that he would be unwilling to sell the firm, but explained that as things stands he is not in any talks with potential buyers. The FT reported: “We are not in negotiations with anybody at all in relation to selling BHS. Does that mean it's not for sale? Nothing is not for sale. That would be an idiotic [statement]. We have not had and we are not in any negotiation or discussion with anybody at all.”

The comments come as Arcadia announced that its turnover increased from £2.68 billion to £2.74 billion. The firm's pre-tax profit also rose from £103.7 million to £481.1 million , although sales were down by 2.7 per cent when looking at stores that had been open for at least a year.

In response to the latest figures the company has started to explore alternative options for BHS, one of which is to expand into selling food in the department stores. Some 150 of BHS's 183 stores have permission to sell food already, meaning that the company could open a food outlet as early as 2014.

“We have already got the space. In research we have done, our customers have said they would like to buy food. We may have a shot at it,” said Sir Philip.

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