Iconic British luxury brand Burberry has named Joshua Schulman as its fourth boss in a decade in a surprise shake-up for the beleaguered label. He will replace Jonathan Akeroyd, who has held the role for more than two years but will now depart the London-headquartered business. Schulman is an industry veteran, having spent more than 33 years in fashion.
He served as chief executive of Michael Kors from 2021 to 2022. Prior to that, he worked as brand president of Coach , from 2017 to 2022, where he was credited with turning the label around. Investors will be looking to see whether he can make the same kind of change at Burberry, which has suffered a bruising few years during the luxury slowdown.
An attempted brand turnaround has already stumbled when Akeroyd and creative director Daniel Lee tried to reshape Burberry as a more upmarket and exclusive brand, but lost out to the global slump in demand, as well as industry stalwarts like Prada and Miu Miu. Burberry’s trading update this morning made a “tough read” for investors, according to equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Aarin Chiekrie. The group revealed it expected to report an overall revenue decline of 25 per cent for the first half of the year.
Burberry shares opened down 12 per cent in early deals and had fallen by over 15 per cent by late morning. The stock has lost 46 per cent year-to-date and 64 per cent over the past 12 months. “Weaknesses that were already highlighted by the group coming into the financi.
