Once a beacon of British heritage and craftsmanship, Burberry’s recent decline has been striking. Shoppers and investors seem to have fallen out of love with the retailer. Sales have plunged, and Burberry shares have fallen 70 per cent over the past year.
Earlier this week, the stock touched a 14-year low before rebounding. While the luxury goods sector as a whole has faced challenges , the speed and severity of the London-listed brand’s fall from grace stands out. Its decline has earned it an unenviable spot among the FTSE 100’s worst performers of 2024 so far.
A toxic cocktail of issues is behind the decline—some due to the company’s own missteps and others from sheer bad luck. Burberry shares nosedived last month as the company revealed how badly it had performed in the first half of the year. For the 13 weeks ending 29th June, the company’s comparable store sales—excluding the effects of new openings, closures, and renovations—fell by 21 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Burberry explained: “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. “As we navigate this period, we have decided to suspend dividend payments in respect of [the financial year to the end of March 2025] in order to maintain a strong balance she.