They say if you want something doing, ask a busy person, and few people have been busier over the past four months than Dan Finley, head of Manchester-based online fashion firm Boohoo (BOO:AIM).

Since taking over as chief executive at the start of November, Finley has fought off a rearguard action by Frasers (FRAS) to install Mike Ashley in the CEO role, raised £39 million of fresh capital in an oversubscribed share offering and sold the firm’s Soho headquarters in order to help pay down £50 million of debt. If that wasn’t enough to be getting on with, he’s also seen off an attempt by Frasers to remove founder and vice chair Mahmud Kamani from the board.

Now, Finley is rolling the dice with a new strategy, ‘Debenhams is Back’, which involves changing the group’s name and restructuring the fashion operations along the same lines as the once-beloved department store’s ‘online marketplace’ model.

Under Finley’s aegis, Debenhams has been successfully turned round since boohoo bought the brand out of administration in 2021, evolving from a bricks-and-mortar retailer to a ‘stock-lite’ model partnering with external brands and with no inventory of its own.

‘This “stock-lite” strategy reduces both risk and capital investment—a significant advantage in the fast-evolving e-commerce landscape,’ observes trade journal Retail Gazette.

Indeed, the marketplace model has driven impressive growth with GMV (gross merchandise value) jumping 43% to £645 million in the year to February 2025.

Just as impressive, the business achieved a 27% margin of EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) to sales, ‘a strong performance in today’s challenging retail climate,’ adds the Gazette.

But can the same model be applied to fast-fashion businesses such as Boohoo itself and PrettyLittleThing, which were once the group’s driving force but more recently have been suffering from flagging sales and rising competition from aggressive rivals like Shein?

The consumer team at Panmure Liberum accept the young fashion brands are struggling, but argue the potential Debenhams provides could attract a new type of investor.

‘There exists huge optionality in the value of the young fashion brands and their turnaround opportunity. This could take many forms which will become clearer over the next year; they may be a cash cow earning high single digit EBITDA margins, their IP may be sold off and integrated into the marketplace offer or invest behind them and grow from here. What is key, is that Debenhams is a blueprint for the turnaround of the wider business.’

So far the market seems underwhelmed by the potential rebrand and is probably awaiting evidence the new strategy is gaining traction before it will give the business any credit.