Burberry, once an emblem of British heritage and craftsmanship, is experiencing a noticeable downturn. The iconic retailer has seen a significant decline in sales and its shares have plummeted by 70 per cent over the past twelve months. The company's stock even hit a 14-year low earlier this week, though it saw a slight recovery later on.
The broader luxury sector has certainly encountered headwinds, but the sharp downturn of the London-listed label is particularly striking. Burberry now finds itself as one of the undesirable top underperformers in the FTSE 100 for the year 2024. A mixture of self-inflicted errors and unfortunate circumstances contribute to Burberry's troubles.
Dire financial results Dismal financial figures have been brought into stark relief as Burberry's shares took a dive last month upon revealing dim financial performance for the first half of the year, as reported by . During the 13 weeks up to 29th June, the brand's like-for-like sales, not counting impacts from new stores, closures, or refurbishments, dropped by 21 per cent compared to the prior year. Burberry disclosed: "The slowdown in trading we experienced in [the first quarter of our financial year] continued into July.
If this trend were to continue through the current quarter, we would expect to report a half-year operating loss and full year operating profit to be below current consensus." Burberry has chosen to forego dividend payments for the financial period concluding in March 2025, as exp.