James Moore: Can BHS be sold – or will another one bite the dust?

Outlook: The deaths of Woolworths and Littlewoods were not pretty

So who is going to buy BHS? Or should that read: who is going to remove the BHS millstone from around Sir Philip Green’s neck? This is the business that made him the fastest paper billionaire in history and an A-list star in the financial firmament. He paid £200m and had it on his books for £1.2bn in the space of a year. Now it is a question of how much of a dowry it will require for someone to take it on.

Even Sir Philip’s magic touch hasn’t been enough to prevent BHS from being swept away by the revolution on the high street. But is it gong to be worthwhile for one of the causes of that revolution (aggressive, focused discounters like Primark, Lidl and Aldi are all rumoured to be in the running) to pick up? That’s an intriguing question.

We are told that Sir Philip has had a number of approaches, which is no doubt true. BHS’s difficulties aren’t any secret and, with the business on the block, virtually any retailer worth its salt will take a look, even if its intentions don’t go much beyond prurient interest in the books, so that it can find out just how bad things have got for BHS. As BHS said in statement about the matter: “It is now the company’s plan to explore whether any of these can be brought to a conclusion.”

Excuse me if that doesn’t sound too optimistic. Of the four “variety” retailers that used to be high street fixtures, BHS and Marks & Spencer are the only two left. The deaths of the others, Woolworths and Littlewoods, were not pretty. BHS’s demise may be different only if one of those expressions can successfully be “brought to a conclusion”. What isn’t in doubt is that its 87-year residency on Britain’s high streets will soon be over. Its business model is no longer viable and, if a buyer can be found, it will put its own name on BHS’s stores. Which leaves M&S the last remaining member of the four. But, given the way that M&S has been going, would you be willing to put serious money that we won’t be here again within a few years?