UK Sales fell at Burberry (LON:BRBY) during its third quarter, in a blow to the luxury brand’s redevelopment plans.
The British fashion house, renowned for its distinctive check and trench coats, attributed the fall in sales to a slowdown in tourism traffic from wealthy Chinese shoppers.
The quarterly results missed analyst expectations, in spite of an influx of overseas shoppers following the de-valuation of the pound sterling in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, during the same period last year.
“The root cause of Burberry’s recent lacklustre growth performance is its inability to ‘wow’ consumers and grow the top line,” noted Luca Solca, analyst at Exane BNP Paribas in comments to the Financial Times.
“The planned departure of Christopher Bailey opens the opportunity for Burberry to turn the page, and seek new creative talent,” he added.
Back in November of last year, the luxury brand announced the departure of longstanding creative director Chistopher Bailey.
Mr Bailey has been credited with revitalizing the iconic brand into a new creative direction, with various well-known British stars fronting their campaigns, such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Emma Watson and Douglas Booth.
Bailey held the position of chief executive from 2014 until July of 2017, when he was appointed to his current role as chief creative, and replaced by Mr Marco Gobbetti.
Since his appointment, Mr Gobbetti has revealed his intention to re-assert Burberry as a super luxury British brand.
In spite of the lacklustre quarter, Gobbetti reaffirmed that the company were on track to make “good progress”.
He added: “We are building on strong foundations and are fully focused on the successful delivery of our multi-year plan to position Burberry firmly in luxury and deliver long-term sustainable value.”
Nevertheless, upmarket British brand Mulberry encountered difficulties a few years ago, when it similarly attempted to re-market itself as an ultra luxe brand.
After falling sales and slimmer profit margins, Mulberry (LON:MUL) have since taken to re-position its bag prices under new chief executive Thierry Andretta.
Shares in Burberry are currently down 6.86 percent as of 13.41, as the market reacts to the results.