Fashion house Mulberry has proven analysts correct – but not in the good way. Mulberry, which has neither a CEO nor a creative director saw their fiscal year ending with a 50 percent drop.
According to the company, the fall is a result of costs from new store openings and other one-off costs. This concludes that the numbers met analysts expectations.
The facts state the following; wholesale revenue went down six percent, with an 11 percent increase in international revenue due to the opening of nine international stores. However, online sales also saw a fall of 11 percent.
Mulberry has not seen the best of time lately; in the last year saw the departure of Creative Director Emma Hill and of CEO Bruno Guillon, who was ousted after his implementation of a more expensive product line failed with customers. None of these positions have been replaced.
Currently, Executive Chairman and interim CEO Godfrey Davis, has begun trying to sort out and fix Mulberry’s pricing problem, of which two weeks ago saw the introduction of a set of bags that were priced between £500 to £800, which the company hopes would prove to be beneficial as it continues to roll out more products within this range. The collection is called Tessie, of which only 500 of these bags have been sold; the collection is mainly available in Europe and online, but will make its U.S. and Asia debut soon.
The company have positive expectations for the second half of this year. However, will there be a new CEO or Creative Director? “It’s an important role and the board is aware that people are frustrated that it is taking time, but we are determined to find the right person. Our choice of CEO will be informed by our choice of creative director, which is what the board is focused on primarily,” said Davis.
