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Superdry founder Julian Dunkerton has proclaimed he has done enough to steer the clothing brand through the crucial Christmas shopping season after winning a boardroom fight earlier this year.
In a video released by house broker Liberum on Thursday, Mr Dunkerton said that since taking the helm in April he had focused on cutting costs and ensuring new products were available for the final quarter, when retailers usually make the majority of their profit.
“Have I done enough to save Christmas? I actually think yes, I think it’s going to be quite exciting,” he said.
It has been a tumultuous year for Superdry, which has issued three profit warnings.
Mr Dunkerton, the group’s biggest shareholder, with an 18 per cent stake, returned to the boardroom after winning a shareholder vote by a narrow margin. He had persistently criticised the previous management team led by Euan Sutherland, which resigned en masse once investors backed the co-founder.
He has previously indicated that it will take two to three years to reinvigorate the brand, known for its jackets and hoodies emblazoned with Japanese kanji. A “kitchen sink” set of full-year results, when the group reported an £85m pre-tax loss in the year to April and took a £129m impairment charge against its UK store estate, followed his return.
However the share price has fallen by a quarter since Mr Dunkerton resumed the chief executive role and some analysts have said the company’s problems are deep seated. Kate Calvert at Investec said Superdry was “a major restructuring story rather than a two to three-year brand reinvigoration.”
She added that same-store sales had been falling for years once the effects of currency movements were stripped out and that its profitability had been declining even though a shift to wholesale should have improved it.
“This suggests to us that Superdry’s range and brand issue go back further than the last 18 months,” she added.
Mr Dunkerton has previously warned that his pledge to reduce discounting would affect revenue in the short term and repeated that “the gross sales number is not going to look too thrilling.”
Consensus forecasts suggest analysts are expecting revenue to fall slightly in the current year, but underlying profits are set to rebound by 24 per cent.
Mr Dunkerton said in the video that Phil Dickinson, a Nike executive hired under Mr Sutherland as creative director, was still working at the company.
“People thought I wouldn’t get on with [Phil] as he had my old job title, but actually we’re working brilliantly together, he brings complementary skills and he has committed to us for the long term.”
Despite the expanded product ranges, the company has already closed two out of four “completely unnecessary” warehouses, saying that it has carried “too much dead stock” in the past.
“We are releasing working capital by reducing stock holding and moving to a better, leaner future.”
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