Burberry Group said Schulman joins the company with “a track record of driving transformative growth and value creation as CEO of global luxury, fashion, and retail businesses.”
Burberry's new CEO
Formerly the CEO of Michael Kors and Coach, Schulman has also held roles at Neiman Marcus and Jimmy Choo as well as senior roles with YSL and Gucci.
Burberry chair Gerry Murphy, said: I am pleased that Josh will be joining Burberry as our new CEO. 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. His extensive experience in luxury and fashion will be key to realising Burberry's full potential."
Schulman added: "I am deeply honoured to join Burberry as CEO. Burberry is an extraordinary luxury brand, quintessentially British, equal parts heritage and innovation. Its original purpose to protect people from the weather is more relevant than ever. I look forward to working alongside Daniel Lee and the talented teams to drive global growth, delight our customers, and write the next chapter of the Burberry story."
The news comes in the wake of Burberry’s Q1 financial results where it revealed a 22% dip in retail revenues in constant currency terms to £458m ($594.78m). In constant currencies, this was a fall of 20%.
Comparable store sales fell 21% from an 18% increase for the same period last year.
Comparable store sales in the first quarter were down in all regions, with Asia Pacific and Americas seeing a decline of 23% while EMEIA saw a 16% fall.
It blamed “slowing luxury demand” in all regions for the sales slowdown.
Burberry Group says it is now focused on the “opportunity to reconnect with our core customer base and capitalise on the enduring appeal of Burberry's iconic products and brand whilst delivering relevant newness.”
Amid its efforts it is looking at rebalancing its product offer to include a “broader everyday luxury offer and a more complete assortment across key categories”, refining marketing plans, reshaping its website to drive online conversion and operational efficiencies and deliver cost savings to offset the impact of inflation.
"Our Q1 FY25 performance is disappointing. We moved quickly with our creative transition in a luxury market that is proving more challenging than expected. The weakness we highlighted coming into FY25 has deepened and if the current trend persists through our Q2, we expect to report an operating loss for our first half. In light of current trading, we have decided to suspend dividend payments in respect of FY25. We are taking decisive action to rebalance our offer to be more familiar to Burberry's core customers whilst 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," said Gerry Murphy, chair of Burberry
Outlook
Burberry Group says if the slowdown trend continues through the current quarter it expects to post a H1 operating loss and FY25 operating profit to be below current consensus.
However, it expects the actions being taken to start to deliver an improvement into its second half to strengthen its competitive position and underpin long-term growth.
