You've taken over one street by street station.
Is this a commitment to the UK? Yeah, absolutely.
But when we communicated that for us, we're going to really anchor ourselves
in London. We're a great British brand and so we're
going to celebrate that a lot more. And first day at London Fashion Week.
What better way to take over one of our most famous tube stations, Burberry
Street, And that was on Street. So it's a great initiative and we've got
many, many things going on around the capital.
So I think everybody should be very aware that we've got a show on Monday.
So it's super exciting and it is just to get closer to your customer and
consumer. Yeah, Well, we found we now have a new
creative director, Daniel Lee, who I believe is one of the biggest talents,
creative talents of our generation. So we're extremely lucky to have him and
he's very aligned with my vision that we need to celebrate being British.
So so I think it's a good opportunity for us to really start talking it out in
a lot of the way in our home market. And then next month we move on to Seoul.
So we're doing a very similar activation in Seoul and then after that Shanghai
and then back to New York. So it's a big multi-city activation.
How's business in the UK doing business in the UK, obviously it's so soft, it's
our market. So we've just opened our fourth store in
London. We just renovated our store in Bond
Street, which is fantastic, super exciting and yeah, we're very positive.
Your chairman has had a go at the government for actually not helping
luxury companies or retail companies out more with VAT refunds.
Are you missing out? Well, we're not missing out.
I mean, overall, globally, our tourist sales have obviously been increasing in
the last couple of years, which is a positive.
So that's a good trend. Unfortunately, there is a gap between
our tourist spend growth in mainland Europe versus the UK, which is
disappointing, especially as it's our home market.
So we'll keep communicating that. We think probably post-Brexit.
It kind of it would have been an opportunity, it would have been an
opportunity to bring more tourists in. So we hope that sometime soon things
will change. Will the government listen?
I hope so. Will we.
Can we keep talking? It's not just us as well.
I think there is a big movement to to keep communicating about
that, the frustration of it. But we're also concentrating on
celebrating, you know, our brand here in London Fashion Week as well.
So still lots to do. And are you missing the Chinese tourists
in London or are they spending elsewhere or is it really a loss of revenue?
I wouldn't say we're missing them. You know, we as I said, generally our
tourists growth has been impressive globally.
So it's just spreading around globally. So, you know, in the even into the UK as
well. So when you look at pockets of growth,
where are you doing especially well like regionally?
Regionally we are quarter one results that we communicated in May, which puts
good growth in Europe. So Europe has been strong, also very
positive in South East Asia. Package to China.
And how's that Daniel, you going? Sorry, has a new creative director.
So sales are amazing. Yeah.
So I think Daniel has this incredible talent for accessories.
So I think he's probably, in my opinion, he's one of the best creative directors
that has an incredible lens on accessories.
And for us, we also think it's a big growth area for Burberry.
And we've now actually literally last week we've gone live with Daniel's
products into our stores and I'm super, super excited and it's really great when
you see the teams and the customers really appreciating the work that he's
done. So we believe we've got a big
opportunity in accessories, especially as obviously they have a big strength
and ready to wear as well. So it's good.
How do you explain this move to quiet luxury?
You think? It's definitely a trend?
And I think I think that's a positive trend.
I think obviously logos and branding is always going to be very important for
us. We have an icon in the Czech as well.
So Daniel really believes that the Czech is something that we can be a lot more
playful with, not just in our in our Novichok beige colour, but he's actually
embraced it in other colours. And this we call this blue up our night
blue as well. So I think and Daniel naturally as an,
as a house, you know, I think Burberry is quite an understated brand, but there
is a clear trend to things being less branded and more sophisticated.
And I think that also plays to strengths as well.
When you look at your supply chain or where things are made, do you think you
know, a made in India or made in elsewhere will always have at some point
have the luxury appeal that maybe Italy or maybe France has or made in the UK?
I think customers look for ultimately the quality of the product.
And for us we're bringing a lot more of our production into Europe, actually,
particularly into Italy. So we're we're bringing it more
nearshore than perhaps we were previously.
But, you know, I think the most important thing is the quality of the
product. And you have some things you can get
made better in some countries versus others.
So what are you what's your biggest challenge in the next 12 months?
Biggest challenge is we we we're on a big elevation journey here about three,
which is super exciting. I think it's definitely our moment.
I think it's a market share for Burberry.
To have. But that means really for us, it's going
to be about attracting a bigger luxury customer into the brand,
particularly for categories like accessories.
So we're really focusing on our on the execution of our strategy and but really
confident that, you know, people are really appreciating and seeing what
we're doing and, you know, doing activations like this as well.
I think people are it brings an element of surprise and that'll be coming into
our stores, I'm sure. We also refreshed our website as well to
kind of anchor into this new brand image and aesthetic that we have.
And we launched that last week and it also had a big increase in traffic to
our site since that was done as well. So in terms of execution, is it is it
going higher end or a higher net worth or whatever?
It's a very Democratic brand, but we do feel that we can play a lot more into
that luxury space. And that means an elevation into certain
categories, particularly for us. We felt I mean, as you know, we have
probably the most luxury iconic trends that we have that, you know, has been
around for for many, many years. And that is a true luxury product
handmade in the UK. That's really the ultimate in Rewear.
So we already have good luxury for our cashmere scarves, but we feel we can
play more into that accessory space and other ready to wear categories.
And how's the land in China going? Good.
Yeah, very positive. Yeah, we're really pleased.
I think it's been great to have China back opened and during that period we
were able to refurbish and refresh a number of our stores.
And again, there's a huge awareness of Daniel Talent of Chinese customers,
really sophisticated. They know their brands, they know their
designers. So they're also super excited about
what's what's coming into the stores. Jonathan, thank you so much for your
time. Pleasure.
Thanks, Francine.