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Burberry has appointed former Michael Kors and Coach CEO Joshua Schulman to the same role, replacing Jonathan Akeroyd who is stepping down with immediate effect. The British luxury brand also revealed that retail sales tumbled 22 per cent year-on-year (at reported exchange rates) to £458 million in the first quarter.
Schulman was CEO of Michael Kors from 2021 to 2022 and before that at Coach — where he also served as brand president — from 2017 to 2020. Prior to that, he was president of US retailer Bergdorf Goodman and CEO of Jimmy Choo. His CV also includes stints at Yves Saint Laurent and Gucci. He will join Burberry on 17 July.
Burberry said Akeroyd is leaving the company “by mutual agreement with the board”, confirming media reports that a departure was imminent after a period of stuttering sales. In January, Burberry issued a warning that its full-year operating profit would be lower than previously forecast, blaming disappointing retail sales over the holiday period due to a wider slowdown in luxury demand. The slump was particularly pronounced in two of Burberry’s key markets: China and the US. (It had already lowered its revenue forecast for 2024 two months prior.)
In its trading update today, Burberry — which has 229 retail stores, 145 concessions, 56 outlets and 33 franchise stores globally — said comparable store sales were down by 23 per cent both in Asia Pacific and the US in Q1 (and down 16 per cent in EMEIA). The brand warned that, on its current trajectory, it expects to report an operating loss for the first half of the 2025 financial year. It has suspended dividend payments.
“Our Q1 FY25 performance is disappointing. We moved quickly with our creative transition in a luxury market that is proving more challenging than expected,” said Burberry chair Gerry Murphy in a statement.
Akeroyd joined Burberry in 2022, taking over from Marco Gobbetti, who moved to Ferragamo. Gobbetti had been hired to replace Christopher Bailey, who had a 17-year tenure at Burberry and was both chief creative officer and CEO between 2014 and 2017 (Bailey and Burberry eventually decided the dual role was not the right move).
Akeroyd’s appointment came amidst a leadership shakeup, including the departure of CFO and COO Julie Brown (which was announced in September 2022 and took effect in April 2023) and the appointment of Bottega Veneta’s Daniel Lee as chief creative officer in September 2022. Lee and Akeroyd’s mission was to align Burberry more closely with “Britishness”, which critics say was lost under former creative director Riccardo Tisci.
However, Burberry remains at a crossroads, seeking a more elevated luxury positioning but without the leather goods heritage from which many luxury megabrands have built their wealth. The brand is best known for its gabardine trench coats and the classic Burberry check. “We are not a traditional luxury company with a history of making shoes or bags for the aristocracy. We make coats. It’s quite practical,” Bailey said in an interview after he announced he was stepping back from Burberry.
In September 2024, the British brand went big during London Fashion Week with a city-wide marketing push and revamped e-commerce site, marking Lee’s second runway show and the arrival of his first collection in stores. However, the creative revamp and elevation strategy have not stopped its sales from falling.
Schulman’s success in leading aspirational luxury brands such as Michael Kors and Coach raises questions about whether Burberry will abandon its elevation strategy in favour of more accessible pricing. Following the announcement that Akeroyd has exited, Bernstein analyst Luca Solca said in a note: “It was apparent that the attempted upmarket repositioning had failed — as well as the relaunch under Daniel Lee as creative director — as Burberry heavily discounted its products online and elsewhere.”
Murphy said: “We are taking decisive action to rebalance our offer to be more familiar to Burberry’s core customers while delivering relevant newness. We expect the actions we are taking, including cost savings, to start to deliver an improvement in our second half and to strengthen our competitive position and underpin long-term growth.”
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