John Coca
MULBERRY chairman Godfrey Davisasserted today that the company is "looking forward with some optimism" ahead of the arrival of new creative director Johnny Coca at the brand on July 8. Although still relatively grim reading - with profits before tax down to just £1.9 million from £14 million in 2014 - the figures have taken a turn for the better in recent months (retail sales rising 10 per cent in the 10 weeks up to June 6), and Davis is sure that is set to continue.
"There are no surprises in these figures," Davis told us as the figures were released this morning. "We updated the market in April and if anything current trading figures are a welcome surprise. The strategy we've adopted is working, and our core UK customer is responding, with business much improved in the second half, and even more so in the last quarter."
Johnny Coca
The shift in strategy, implemented in the earlier part of the year, involved increasing the leather goods offering under £1000 - and looking at that product carefully. Gone are sombre colours and bags priced in the thousands, replaced by a return to the old Mulberry spirit of accessibility and fun.
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"From a fashion perspective, we've had to be more creative," Davis explained, "with more colour; bags that are more cheerful and interesting. We've fine-tuned the product offering and become more disciplined, with a focus on bestsellers. We realised we needed to populate the collection in the under-£1,000 area, because we realised we had lost sight of the fashion and lifestyle element of the brand, so we've addressed that. Last year, we had nearly 60 per cent of the collection at the higher pricepoint, so customers were being bombarded by the more expensive bags when they looked at the website or came into a store, even though the lower-priced bags were there. Now we've increased the under-£1,000 offering to more like 70 per cent, and by spring/summer 2016, there will be 80 per cent."
Although Coca doesn't start his role for almost a month, Davis is confident that the team will work well together, revealing that he, Coca, and new CEO Thierry Andretta have spent some time together for a "settling in period" and that during the interview process, they focused on "checking out that they were all on the same page".
Hiring an accessories designer has caused many in the industry to speculate that the label's ready-to-wear - once a focus of growth for the company - will fall by the wayside, giving way to the leather goods which account for "90 per cent of the group's sales". Not so, says Andretta.
"The future of Mulberry will be international growth," Andretta told us, "and to succeed in international expansion you cannot be a category brand. Shoes and ready-to-wear are crucial, and must be completely aligned in terms of aesthetic as well as pricing. With ready-to-wear it is important to be able to express ourselves, but it's too early to say whether this will mean a catwalk show. We'll take time to get things right."
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