Burberry, who last week reported a rise in profits, have stated J. O'Neill, president worldwide, has resigned as a director of the company with effect from July 1. A replacement has not yet been named.

Since joining Burberry in November 2001, O'Neill's primary focus has been on developing the management team and strategy of the company's operations in Asia.

www.burberry.com
20 April 2004

Burberry On Check For Sales

Burberry reported a 14 per cent growth in retail sales for the first three months of the year. The group stated sales in the UK were picking up after a slow Christmas. While Japan and the US account for the biggest growth, sales in the UK have been improving in the last quarter.

Retail sales were up 14 per cent in the three months to 31 March (the end of their financial year) against 11 per cent in the third quarter. Wholesale sales increased 16 per cent in the second half.

www.burberry.com
14 April 2004

Burberry To Bid For Laura Ashley

Burberry chief executive Rose Marie Bravo is believed to be looking at a bid for store chain Laura Ashley. Bravo has told close friends she is considering a number of options and is keen to take on a new challenge. According to one source, Bravo has sounded our private equity firm KKR about a deal to buy Laura Ashley.

www.burberry.com
> more Laura Ashley news on FashionUnited
24 February 2004

Burberry Checked Too Often

There has been an overdose of press lately concerning British fashion empire Burberry. While you either love it or hate it, everybody seems to have an opinion on the signature-checked house. It's almost as if the UK's most successful fashion house, having conquered the globe with stores in 17 countries, is receiving minimal support from it's homeland.

While the image in our heads of a women clad in a Burberry skirt and Burberry jacket hauling a Burberry-clad baby out of a Burberry wrapped buggy is rather tiring, the label's marketing men no doubt feel the message was interpreted in much the wrong way. Dare we even mention in an unfashionable way. The tongue-in-cheek advertising of mixing supermodels with aristocracy initially made the brand appeal to both the Bridget Jones's and the Mommies and didn't tread on the toes of the older customer.

Raymond Boyle, a lecturer at Stirling University and a specialist in popular culture, says: "Burberry is a brand established for the elite and the affluent, which has rapidly expanded. At some point someone in the marketing department said: 'If we can bring it slightly downmarket, we can increase the sales.' But the result is that it gets picked up by popular culture and swept away. It's worn by celebs, over-worn by neds, then there is a fashion backlash against it."

Since the appointment of Rose Marie Bravo in 1997, the brand, once appealing only to matronly types of older upper class ladies, made it's way to Kate Moss in a brilliant advertising campaign and the company's value was raised from GBP200 million to GBP2.4 billion.

Today the signature-look check is no doubt over-exposed in Britain and has been absent from the fashion pack's wardrobes for a while. Still, Burberry is by no means a sleepy label, and the company, which has reduced its check to 15 per cent of the collection, is gaining success with the fashionable Prorsum Collection, designed by Chris Bailey. Hailed as the new Tom Ford, his spring/summer 04 collection has been heralded by the press and is the one to watch for next season.

www.burberry.com
4 December 2003

Burberry's week

Burberry this week is set to report another stellar profits rise and speculation is mounting that it will be spun off from parent GUS. Burberry is expected to show earnings before tax up by 17 per cent to £321m, driven by shop sales.

High street sales are expected to show a slowdown this week, causing further worries for retailers in the run-up to Christmas. Official sales data due on Thursday are likely to show a slowing in growth from 0.6 per cent in September to 0.3 per cent last month.

17 November 2003
www.burberry.com

Burberry associations

Wearing a classic Burberry raincoat, Humphrey Bogart strolled nonchalantly into Rick's Cafe in Casablanca. But that was in 1942. These days, however, he would probably be turned away at the door.

One female oil worker was aghast when she was banned from a restaurant/bar in Aberdeen for having a distinctive check designer umbrella and handbag. She said last night: "I was going for a drink with my husband at around 10.20pm on Saturday and was told I couldn't get in because I was wearing Burberry.

"The door staff said Burberry was associated with soccer casuals, but there's no way I resembled that. I was furious because I was dressed perfectly smartly. It was a Burberry handbag and umbrella, for goodness sake." The Filling Station could be accused of taking its ban too far by most people's standards. Yet efforts by Rose Marie Bravo, the brand's chief executive, to make the label more accessible may be fuelling a Burberry backlash, as an increasing number of bars, restaurants, and nightclubs across Scotland ban its designs.

Previously aspirational, the brand has evolved into an anarchic uniform adopted by football hooligan culture and other troublemakers. Like Aquascutum, Evisu, and Stone Island, Burberry has fallen foul of tribal hijacking - the moment when a brand becomes the badge of belonging to a particular group that is not part of its target market.

An internet joke doing the rounds described a Burberry-clad Mini Metro as the ultimate car for Glasgow neds.

Alan Bannerman, owner of the Phoenix bar in Dundee city centre, said: "I fully appreciate where other publicans are coming from. If a young man walks in with a shaved head and a Burberry cap and shirt, I wouldn't think twice about whether he was trouble. I believe I speak for at least 90% of pub owners in Dundee. Burberry has become the badge of thuggery."
Thomas Burberry opened his first shop in Basingstoke, Hampshire, in 1856. The signature check began as a lining for his ivory trench coats, which are still a best-seller today.

Once viewed as rather traditional and stuffy, the fashion house is now a catwalk regular. Celebrity wearers include Victoria Beckham, Kate Moss, and Robbie Williams. However, there is evidence the brand is creeping into overkill and the realm of street wear with gangs of youths favouring the Burberry baseball cap. Doll's pram, cot, and high-chair sets in an imitation of the check can be bought at Argos.

12 November 2003
www.burberry.com