I'll now hand over to Gerry Murphy, Chair of Burberry, to begin. Please go ahead when you're ready.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us at short notice. I'm Gerry Murphy, Chair of Burberry, and with me is Kate, our CFO, and Lauren, our Head of Investor Relations. As you will have seen, we've published our Q1 trading update this morning, and there are slides to accompany this call on the corporate website. We also announced the appointment of Josh Schulman as Chief Executive and Executive Director, replacing Jonathan Akeroyd, who is stepping down, leaving the company with immediate effect by mutual agreement with the board. Josh will join Burberry on the 17th of July, in a couple of days' time.
I'll talk about Josh's appointment and our near-term priorities in a moment, but first, I'll hand you over to Kate to talk through our performance for Q1 FY25 and our outlook for the full year, and then we'll take your questions at the end. Thank you. Kate?
Thank you, Gerry, and good morning. As you all know, we are operating against a backdrop of slowing luxury demand, with all key regions impacted by macroeconomic uncertainty and contributing to the sector slowdown. In this context, our Q1 full year 2025 comparable store sales fell 21%, and that compares with +18% this time last year. As highlighted on slide 5, all regions declined outside of Japan, with Asia Pacific down 23%, with Mainland China - 21%, South Asia Pacific - 38%, South Korea - 26%, and Japan +6%. Globally, the Chinese customer group declined high teens but held up better than Mainland China as spend was diverted offshore. Japan continued to grow, benefiting from strong tourism spend, mainly from Chinese and nearshore customers in Asia, while locals remained soft. Americas declined 23%, driven by locals.
Globally, the Americas customer group performed broadly in line with the region. EMEIA fell 16%, with local spend deteriorating versus last quarter. Tourists accounted for just over half of retail revenues but declined by a high single. Turning to slide 6 of the deck, this provides a breakdown of our Q1 FY 2025 retail sales. The contribution from space was 1%, leading to a 20% decline in retail sales at constant exchange rate, exchange rates to GBP 473 million. RNC was a 2% headwind in the period, with retail revenue coming in at GBP 458 million, down 22% at reported exchange rates. Turning to outlook on slide 7, the slowdown we experienced in Q1 FY 2025 has continued into July.
If this trend were to continue through the quarter, we would expect to report an H1 operating loss and for our full year 2025 operating profit to be below current consensus. In light of current trading, we've decided to suspend dividend payments in respect of full year 2025, in order to maintain a strong balance sheet and to strengthen our competitive position and underpin long-term growth. To help with modeling in full year 2025, we expect retail space to be broadly stable, wholesale revenue to decline by around 25% in the first half, and decline by around 30% in the full year. Capital expenditure will be around GBP 150 million, and currency will be a headwind of around GBP 55 million on revenue and around GBP 20 million on operating profit, all based on foreign exchange rates effective as at the 28th of June.
I will now hand back to Gerry.
Thank you, Kate. As you know, we embarked a couple of years ago on a journey to position Burberry as the modern British luxury brand. This ambitious vision has been our North Star. While we are confident that our strategy will deliver sustainable long-term value, our results, particularly recently, have been disappointing. We moved quickly with our creative transition in a luxury market that is proving more challenging than expected. The weakness of the U.S. market, deteriorating consumer confidence in Mainland China, and instability in Europe, as well as the U.K.'s decline as a shopping destination, have all been headwinds to our creative transition. In the context of a weaker global market, as we saw, even today from Swatch, we are taking decisive action to rebalance our offer to be more familiar to Burberry's core customers by delivering relevant newness.
In terms of brand, we are emphasizing its universal resonance and ability to forge powerful emotional connections with our current and new customers. In terms of product, we're enhancing our diversified and inclusive offerings with a clear focus on our unique strengths in the market, outerwear in particular. In terms of our customer base, we're maintaining our relevance with fashion-forward customers, while nurturing those who seek quality and durability and appreciate the everyday timeless elegance of our British heritage. You will see these changes happening. Some, indeed, are already underway. In our stores, where you can already witness how we are blending our heritage with novelty and expanding our assortment to reestablish Burberry's universal positioning. In our upcoming outerwear campaign, set to roll out in October, we will celebrate our heritage and tradition. On our website, where we will be revitalizing our storytelling over the coming weeks.
Now, we expect these actions we are taking to start to deliver an improvement in our second half and to strengthen our competitive position and underpin long-term growth. Significantly, we've appointed Josh Schulman as our new CEO to lead this next phase. He replaces Jonathan Akeroyd, who is stepping down by mutual agreement with the board. Josh is a proven leader with an outstanding record of building global luxury brands and driving profitable growth. He has a strong understanding of our brand and shares our ambition to build on Burberry's unique creative heritage. We're grateful to Jonathan for the contribution he has made to Burberry. Jonathan set out a clear strategy for growth, in modern British luxury that we will build on. We're confident our strategy will deliver sustainable long-term value. Our brand remains very strong. Our core categories are very resilient, with a unique British heritage.
I'm confident that we will achieve our ambitions under Josh's leadership. Now, Kate and I will take your questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, you may do so by pressing Star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press Star followed by two. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your phone is unmuted locally. To confirm, that's Star followed by one to ask the question. Our first question comes from Antoine Belge with BNP Paribas. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes, hi, good morning. It's Antoine at BNP. Three questions, if I may. First of all, regarding the appointment of Josh, can you first of all confirm that he was unemployed since leaving Capri in March 2022? And also, his main CEO experience was in affordable luxury brand rather than luxury brand, so does it signal maybe a change of strategic positioning, maybe a bit away from brand elevation and maybe coming back to a bit more of an affordable luxury positioning? My second question relates to this possibility that H1 could be loss-making. Is it possible to have a bit of underlying assumption in terms of gross margin? How much could it decline?
And also, the OpEx growth, and if there would be any exceptional in that OpEx space. And finally, regarding the new or revised wholesale guidance for the second half, where is the deterioration coming from? I think, when you outlined the H1 guidance, you gave sort of three buckets. Maybe that could be helpful to have a similar-
Mm-hmm
... breakdown between your own initiatives and what is more driven by the market. Thank you.
Thank you, Antoine. Let me deal with the questions about Josh first, and then Kate will take the questions on the numbers. Look, Josh's last major executive role was indeed at Coach, which, as you know, is a very successful global brand. But before Coach, Josh's experience in luxury includes a very successful stint at Jimmy Choo, based here in the UK. A very successful period as CEO of Bergdorf Goodman, and prior to which, he worked with Kering at Yves Saint Laurent. So Josh's experience, frankly, or most of his career, actually, is in luxury. The strategy for Burberry has been, since Marco Gobbetti's time, very much about positioning Burberry as a true luxury brand, and for the avoidance of doubt, that will not change.
Jonathan Akeroyd coined the concept, as I've said, modern British luxury. Again, very much reflecting an ambition to position Burberry as a unique British luxury brand proposition, and that is very much Josh's intention when he joins, in fact, later this week. So you should not assume that there will be any major shift in strategy. As we've said in the statement and in the release, the focus is very much on rebalancing our offer to be more familiar to Burberry's traditional clientele, based on a greater representation in the assortment of classic, timeless pieces, but with a top spin of novelty and newness provided by Daniel Lee for the runway customers and for more fashion-forward customers. So we're trying to be a universal brand.
There's a recognition, I guess, in the statement that we do need to reposition, I guess, back to our core, to some extent, but it's an adjustment, not a reversal of strategy. I want to be very clear about that. On the numbers, Kate?
Good morning, Antoine. So if I firstly take your question on half one, we're not gonna guide to a specific number this morning, but let me just help give you some pointers in terms of the key building blocks there. So on revenue, we've obviously reported that Q1 will be down 21%, and we actually exited the quarter slightly worse than that. And we indicated, obviously, you can see in the statement, that wholesale will decline by around 25% in the first half. I'll come on to a bit more detail on that in a moment, as per your third question. On the margin, as you'll remember, historically, we do tend to see a lower gross margin in first half versus second half, and this is predominantly due to seasonality.
You'll remember the H2 FY 2024 gross margin was 65.8%. And I think, you know, you're gonna see some of the headwinds that you saw in the second half continuing, so those would be investment, obviously, in the supply chain that we've previously talked about. And then, of course, there potentially could be some inventory provisions given where we're trading-
Mm-hmm
... but I'll give you more detail on that at the H1 stage. So I think if you consider, you know, all of this, and of course, you've got some FX headwind in the first half, so that'll be about - 5%. I guess the final piece to mention then would be OpEx. We typically tend to experience; it's normally mid-single digit inflation on the fixed element of the cost base, our fixed cost base being around 80%. As you can imagine, you know, we're really reviewing the cost base very carefully, given the trading environment. But most of the cost actions that we are now taking will come through in the second half.
So I'd expect second half, the cost actions will offset the impact of inflation, but you will still see a bit of inflation in the first half. And then I think the final piece is that, you know, as ever, there'll be a number of accounting adjustments to consider at the half year. And, you know, yet to see whether that will be an additional headwind. Then just on your wholesale question, as per the statement, we expect wholesale to decline by 25% in the first half and about 30% in the full year. And I'll just remind you, the main moving parts in that, and we talked about some of this back in May. So we actively have taken the decision to reduce our exposure to some accounts, mostly in EMEIA.
As you know, we pretty good position in wholesale in the other regions, so that's very much increasing our control of distribution. We have also accelerated the conversion of some of our wholesale accounts to retail. That's mostly in the U.S. And then, of course, you know, as we've flagged this morning, the external environment does remain very tough, and wholesale has been impacted by this. But as ever, we're working closely with our partners to reduce any risk of stocking.
We now turn to Thomas Chauvet with Citi. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Kate and Gerry, and apologies for the background noise. I was caught up a bit by surprise this morning. A couple of questions, please. The first one on the slight change, perhaps in brand strategy and positioning. You're talking about reinforcing Burberry's classic positioning. So does that mean that you don't necessarily need a dedicated creative director? And can you let us know what the duration of Daniel Lee's contract is? I think he joined in the autumn of 2022, so about two years ago. And secondly, Kate, you had already indicated back in May you'll try to offset underlying cost inflation with some cost initiatives. Are you reevaluating the magnitude of cost-cutting action needed in light of recent trends?
Could you elaborate a little bit on what these cost actions are? Thank you.
I'll take the the questions about Daniel, Thomas, and Kate will pick up on the on the numbers again. Look, we believe, as does the market generally, that Daniel Lee is a rare creative talent. We were very excited when he joined and remain so. There is no plans to change our creative leadership. Josh is looking forward to working with Daniel. He's already spoken to him, and they will meet this week. So no, you should not assume any change in creative leadership at this stage.
Just on the costs, I mean, I'll just start by saying we will absolutely continue to prioritize investment in consumer-facing areas. But as you would expect, we're balancing this with very disciplined cost control, key opportunities being in areas such as procurement, travel, improving operating efficiencies. We are, though, you know, even more focused on cost savings in the second half. As per my comments just now, I think we're pretty confident that the cost initiatives that we are taking will enable us to offset the impact of inflation in the second half, which, you know, does require some you know, fairly good cost savings given the size of our cost base.
Thank you.
We now turn to Louise Singlehurst with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, Gerry and Kate. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple from me, please. If I could just go back onto this point on the product, and obviously, we've all been asking about this, but the everyday luxury offer, and just what that actually means. It seems very sensible to be focusing on the outerwear, and obviously, you've talked about the marketing coming in from October. But does this mean a much more kind of casual wear offer? Is this something that Daniel Lee is fully committed to and would be overseeing the whole collection as well, and just the timing around that everyday luxury offer?
And then my question, second question is just to follow up on the whole, like, the messaging here this morning is obviously one of not much change, but there is quite a lot of change if we look underneath the hood in terms of product and thinking about, where the brand potentially is going to go. But is this more of a holding pattern until we hear from, obviously, Josh, when he comes in in November? Is it, are we waiting now for a step two in terms of the strategy update? I presume yes, with a new head at the helm. Thank you.
Thank you, Louise. No, you shouldn't assume a significant change of overall direction. Josh has been very engaged in thinking about Burberry for a number of years, and has a very clear view of where he wants to take the brand, and it's very consistent with what Jonathan was trying to do. We recognize that in a difficult macro environment. A creative transition has proven difficult. And we recognize, as Jonathan said, that once we went live with Daniel's collections, we needed to trim and adjust to, I guess, to favor and to emphasize more of the timeless classics in the collection.
And we also wanna make sure that Burberry is a genuinely inclusive brand, and we've got a good offering through the price points, from sort of entry-level luxury to higher price points, for customers who want something different and novel. So it's about more... It's more about democratizing Burberry, but within a genuine luxury context, than it is about what people commonly refer to as premium or affordable luxury. That is not the strategy. You will hear, Sorry, as you've posed the question, you will hear from Josh more fully at the half-year stage, when he's been in the business for a few months, but you should not expect radical change. That's not the agenda here.
Thank you. Can I just confirm that Daniel will be looking over the whole collection, just to... There's no changes there?
Josh and Daniel will work out their modus operandi. As I said, they've already spoken. Daniel is excited about Josh joining. We spoke about it last night, and they'll meet this week. Effectively, Daniel will concentrate on runway and on innovation, and he and our sort of commercial product team will craft the sort of mainstream assortment. But Daniel will be involved as creative director in all aspects of our creative proposition.
Thank you.
We now turn to Chiara Battistini with JP Morgan.
Sorry, Chiara.
Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Did you have questions, Louise, on the-
Good morning. Hi, thank you very... Hello?
Sorry, Chiara. Go ahead.
Hello. Hi, thank you very much for taking my questions. Just, a couple, please, from me as well. Following up on just what your, your comment about democratizing, but still maintaining a luxury positioning, and I guess it's too early to talk about, views on, on pricing strategy from here, is that right? And also from a store network perspective, maybe any, early views on how maybe the store network could evolve going forward, including outlets? And the second question, shorter term, actually, on, the Q1 trading update on Europe versus my expectation, Europe definitely took a step down. So could you maybe comment on that and give us more color between domestic and, tourists, please, on, European performance? Thank you.
Okay. Do you want to take the numbers question?
Yes, sure. So just to give you a little bit more detail on Europe, so you could see in total we saw a 16% decline, with an exit rate a little bit worse than that. I mean, certainly, locals did continue to decline in the quarter, you know, down certainly worse than what you would have seen before. Tourists were about half the retail revenues, and they declined as a group, kind of, I would say, high single-digit percentage. Tourists were about 55% in the quarter, so that is lower, certainly, than what we would have seen pre-pandemic. And, Chinese customers are around, I think, 19%-20% of the mix, but again, still, well below what we would have seen pre-pandemic.
I think if I just take the one on the store network as well, you know, we are reiterating the guidance that we gave for the full year in terms of CapEx, GBP 150 million. You know, clearly the store network, you know, we have a very strong distribution footprint, and you know, investing here is absolutely key to long-term growth, so no change to this strategy, at that stage.
And on the other question, Chiara, by democratizing, I meant ensuring that Burberry is an inclusive brand, that customers can find product that they regard as timeless and familiar from Burberry, at prices that are also kind of familiar and predictable. But offering a full range across categories and through price points. I think we certainly want to rebalance the assortment from where it is now to be more inclusive. There's a recognition, I think, in the actions we're taking that we needed to course-correct a bit in a tough market, and we're doing that.
Great. Thank you very much.
Our next question comes from Rogerio Fujimori with Stifel. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Oh, hi, good morning, everyone. I have a question about leather goods. I appreciate your comment on no radical change in strategy. I think Jonathan's strategy was really centered in leather goods and moving the average selling price points higher with a more exclusive offer, with price points compared to, say, Prada or Gucci. So what are the implications from his departure on your leather goods strategy, and if it's from what I understand, rebalancing the mix towards lower price points in bags, perhaps with more novelties in the GBP 1,000-GBP 1,500 price point? Thank you.
Thank you, Rogerio, for the question. This is about rebalancing, not about radical change. It's about ensuring that we have the right product mix through price points. But we will continue to make available higher priced, more elevated product to those customers who want that, but ensuring that we have better availability through the range. But from a luxury starting point, that is very much the intention.
Thank you.
We now turn to Zuzanna Pusz with UBS. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Good morning, sir. Thank you for taking the questions. So just two for me. Maybe first of all, on the strategy, because I'm not sure I fully understand why the CEO change, because I think the message so far is that you're not really reversing the strategy, you're just adjusting it, and you don't seem to be planning to go away from sort of brand elevation. So, you know, what really is the change and why it couldn't be really implemented under Jonathan Akeroyd? Just so that we understand maybe fully what's happening. 'Cause with the CEO change, it looked initially like it would be a reversal in the strategy. But I guess from what you said so far, it feels like there's not much change. Jonathan is still gonna be in charge.
You still want to elevate the brand. So, you know, just to maybe understand, what is the new CEO bringing that Jonathan really couldn't bring to the table? And, and secondly, maybe on your outlet exposure. I remember, you know, in the previous calls we had when Marco Gobbetti left, you were mentioning that the business is, you know, much better quality than it was in the past, which I guess, you know, makes sense on the wholesale level. But it does seem like actually your outlet exposure has been increasing over the years. So, you know, is this something that you plan to change? I mean, it is quite important in luxury, and I think customers do look at it. If a brand has a big outlet exposure, it is not necessarily recognized as being so, I would say high-end.
Any update on the outlet exposure and what the new CEO change may involve would be very helpful? Thank you.
Thank you, Zuzanna. Look, on the CEO question, Jonathan is, as you know, one of the most highly respected figures in the fashion industry, and frankly, one of the most popular both inside the business and we need to make a change. And that's what we agreed with him, and that's why we're appointing Josh as CEO for this next phase. That happens, and it's happened in this case, and we are sad to see Jonathan go, but we're also excited that Josh is joining. And I really have no more to say about it than that. On the outlet question, over time, we do want to bring down the outlet penetration.
In a period where trading is challenging, it is frankly very useful to have an outlet channel to manage our inventory in a way that is controlled and accretive to the brand. Over time, pretty much as Marco outlined some time ago, the strategy is to reduce our outlet penetration.
Thank you. And just follow up on the outlets. Can you maybe share with us any color around what percentage of your profits are outlets? 'Cause I understand obviously things have been challenging, but given that, my understanding is that you still produce quite a bit of product made for outlet. I guess that's a key component because it is not used just to clear excess inventory. It is a separate business on its own. So is this something that is gonna change, or is it gonna stay the way it is?
So I'm afraid, as you know, we don't disclose our exposure to outlets. I mean, I think just to reiterate what Gerry said, you know, we will. Our ambition is to reduce our outlet exposure, but it is, you know, an important part of our product life cycle.
Yeah, Zuzanna, we don't look at outlets as a separate business. Their prime purpose is to manage our inventory as part of product life cycle, and obviously, we have to complement the excess inventory with some made-for- outlet products so that we have a compelling offer to customers when they come to the stores. But we don't see it as a separate business, and we're not trying to develop it as a separate business.
Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad now. We now turn to Luca Solca with Bernstein. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. I have a couple of questions. I wonder, as the brand is in transition and as you've been forced to discount quite a significant amount of your inventory, how you go about assessing potential brand equity damage from this excess inventory going into the market? And what kind of lead time it would take to sort of adjust and correct the consumer perception of the Burberry brand now that it is discounted heavily in the market? The second question is about making sure I understand perfectly well what rebalancing means.
The way I understood it so far is that rebalancing means opening more entry price points to make sure that the brand remains inclusive, and that you have the broader audience that Burberry should command. And therefore, this means an adjustment relative to just moving the brand higher. So higher, okay, you will retain that, but you will also make sure that you have entry price to satisfy consumers in the aspirational middle-class segment. I wonder if this is a correct understanding of what you're trying to do. I'm just saying this to confirm or not confirm that this is. And then if you could elaborate on what came short in...
Other than performance and, and results, clearly, but what came short in terms of how, implementation of the strategy was carried out, and what are the most important elements that, Josh should be correcting? Thank you.
Okay, Luca, thank you for your questions. I think you've summarized it pretty well in terms of, of ensuring that, we have product, that is timeless and familiar to customers, available through the price points, from entry level through to more elevated, more novel product with more, innovative design content, rather than shifting everything, upwards. So I think elevation means different things to different people. It's a it's a vague enough term. It does not mean, selling absolutely everything at a higher price point than last year. It means having product available to customers who are, willing to pay more for a product at, with different characteristics.
But it is very much about making sure that we do have product available for our customers who want to buy familiar propositions from Burberry. The question on brand equity, we will manage the inventory consequences of our re-trading over the next two or three seasons, as we would do normally, through our outlets and in a controlled way, and we don't think there's any lasting brand damage as such.
What about-
Sorry, Luca? Sorry, Luca, did you have a follow-up question?
Yeah, I was just wondering what are the most important elements that came short in terms of implementing the strategy during the previous tenure of Jonathan? And what should Josh be correcting? If you could potentially share the two or three most important priorities for him to act on.
Yeah, I think Jonathan himself, in May, signaled a rebalancing back towards the core, back towards timeless product, back towards a marketing propositions and aesthetic that is more intrusive and more familiar to customers. So it's very much executing the actions that are already in place, and getting those done as quickly as possible to rebase the core of the business. So there's nothing novel in the agenda going forward. It is about executing what's already in place.
Thank you, Gerry.
Thank you, Luca.
We now turn to Erwan Rambourg with HSBC. Your line is open, please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions, and well done on getting Josh on board. Maybe just two follow-ups. The macro is hurting everyone in luxury. I'm just wondering what you could have done differently, what was under your control that, in hindsight, you could have done differently over the past two years? And then secondly, I think you've lost a lot of regional heads, the Chief Commercial Officer, the head of the U.S., the head of Europe, one or two clusters in Asia. Have you replaced these people, or are you still in between, and can you benefit from Josh's contacts to make hires at a later stage? Thank you.
Thank you, Erwan. On the hindsight question, yeah, the market, as I said, in the statement, has been weaker than we expected and probably weaker than even you expected, in key markets for us, like China, and North America. And in effect, our European market is mainly about tourism, which frankly is mainly about Chinese and Americans, for the most part. So, it's been a tougher market-
Mm-hmm
... where customers are more cautious, more conservative, not just about price, but on style. And I think we, with the benefit of hindsight, perhaps moved a bit too far, too fast with a new aesthetic in a market that was weakening and where customers basically favor familiarity. So essentially, the corrective actions we're taking, I think, answer the questions, the question that you posed, and they set out the agenda near-term as well for Josh, which is really all about executing what's already in place at pace. On colleagues, yes, we have indeed lost a few colleagues to other opportunities. The recruitment of those is well in hand. Josh will obviously take his own view. The processes are at different stages of completion.
Some are very near completion, others will take a little longer, but he'll want to make his own of that. In the meantime, the team is well-established and very capable, and I don't think we will miss a beat.
Okay. Thank you. Good luck.
This concludes our Q&A session for today. I'll hand now back over to Gerry for any closing remarks.
Well, I just want to say thank you again for joining us at very short notice, and we look forward to seeing you all for our interims update in November. So thanks, everybody.
This now concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.