Burberry has seen a decline in sales and admits there ‘remains much to do’ in transformation plan

Retail revenue in the 13 weeks to December 28 fell 7% on a year-on-year reported basis to £659m, while comparable store sales dropped 4%.

It did see a 4% store sales growth in the Americas in the third quarter, but store sales were down 9% in Asia Pacific and 2% in Europe, Middle East, India and Africa respectively. Outerwear and scarves continued to outperform globally.

In the third quarter, Burberry initiated a brand reset with “it’s always Burberry weather” outerwear campaign as well as a “wrapped in Burberry” festive campaign.

It also strengthened its product focus on core categories, enhanced in-store visual merchandising, and put their creative and commercial teams in a new headquarters for collaboration.

The retailer said it is acting with “urgency” to stabilise the business and return it to growth. It is confident that the strategic plan will improve performance in the long-term.

Burberry chief executive officer Joshua Schulman said: “Since launching Burberry Forward in November, we have moved at pace to advance our strategy to reignite brand desire, improve our performance and drive long-term value creation. 

We are encouraged by the response to our “It’s Always Burberry Weather” outerwear campaign and “Wrapped in Burberry” festive campaign. These activations resonated with a broad range of luxury customers leading to an improvement in brand desirability and strength in outerwear and scarves. 

The acceleration of our core categories reinforces our belief that Burberry has the most opportunity where we have the most authenticity and that our strategic plan will deliver sustainable, profitable growth over time. However, we recognise that it is still very early in our transformation and there remains much to do.”