Burberry will use its British heritage appeal to win back customers by focusing on trench coats and scarves and be less ambitious with prices on bags and shoes, the loss-making luxury brand said in a revamp that sent its shares up sharply. New CEO Joshua Schulman laid out his turnaround plans Thursday after Burberry reported a loss for the first half of its financial year and announced a £40 million ($50.67 million) cost savings program.
The group’s shares surged more than 14% Thursday but are still down more than 40% so far in 2024. “We took pricing too high across the board,” Schulman told investors and analysts, setting out his assessment of what went wrong at Burberry. “We created new brand codes.
.. that were not familiar or recognizable for our customers.
” Looking ahead, he said Burberry would be incredibly disciplined with its brand and market itself as timeless British luxury. Its recent campaigns have focused on outerwear and scarves and featured British celebrities including model Cara Delevingne, rapper Little Simz and actor Olivia Colman. Burberry, like other luxury goods companies , has had a tough time as consumers’ appetite for luxury fell in China and elsewhere, but the retailer has lagged in the industry-wide slowdown.
Schulman, previously CEO at Coach and Michael Kors, is Burberry’s fourth CEO in a decade, and the brand has also had three creative directors in the last seven years, each bringing new styles and logos that confused the brand iden.