Burberry warns 1,700 jobs at risk after annual loss

Burberry, Pop-Up Global Installations. Credits: Courtesy of Burberry The British group Burberry, which has been suffering for months from the crisis shaking the luxury sector, fell into the red for its financial year ended at the end of March. On Wednesday, it announced new cost-saving measures that threaten 1,700 jobs. Burberry, which on Wednesday published a net loss of 75 million pounds, against a profit of 270 million pounds a year earlier, said it was seeing the first positive effects of its recovery plan. After an “emergency” refocus, announced in November, on its great classics, such as the trench coat, the group said it had seen “a significant improvement in its retail sales”. But “we are only at the beginning of our recovery” and “the current macroeconomic environment has become more uncertain given geopolitical developments”, the group warned in a statement. Burberry's cost-saving measures threaten 1,700 jobs An icon of British luxury, the brand has been suffering for many months from a lack of global appetite for high-end products, particularly in China, and from unfortunate strategic choices. Its stock market value has plummeted, to the point of being dislodged in September from the FTSE 100, the leading index of the London financial market. The luxury sector in general was counting on the US market to counterbalance the slowdown in sales in China, but it must now face the customs duties announced by Donald Trump. As a result of these uncertainties, Burberry announced on Wednesday new cost-saving measures of 60 million pounds by 2027, in addition to 40 million pounds announced previously. These measures “could have an impact on approximately 1,700 positions worldwide during the term of the programme”, Burberry said. This represents more than 18 percent of the approximately 9,300 employees the company has, according to its latest annual report. “After a difficult first half, we have made steady progress in implementing our strategic plan”, said chief executive officer Joshua Schulman, quoted in the statement. “The resilience of our outerwear and scarf categories reaffirms my belief that we have the most opportunities where we have the most authenticity”, he added. This article was translated to English using an AI tool. FashionUnited uses AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the end result. This saves our human journalists time they can spend doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the help of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@fashionunited.com

May 14, 2025 - 10:06

Burberry warns 1,700 jobs at risk after annual loss

Burberry, Pop-Up Global Installations. *Credits: Courtesy of Burberry*

The British group Burberry, which has been suffering for months from the crisis shaking the luxury sector, fell into the red for its financial year ended at the end of March. On Wednesday, it announced new cost-saving measures that threaten 1,700 jobs.

Burberry, which on Wednesday published a net loss of 75 million pounds, against a profit of 270 million pounds a year earlier, said it was seeing the first positive effects of its recovery plan.

After an “emergency” refocus, announced in November, on its great classics, such as the trench coat, the group said it had seen “a significant improvement in its retail sales”.

But “we are only at the beginning of our recovery” and “the current macroeconomic environment has become more uncertain given geopolitical developments”, the group warned in a statement.

Burberry's cost-saving measures threaten 1,700 jobs

An icon of British luxury, the brand has been suffering for many months from a lack of global appetite for high-end products, particularly in China, and from unfortunate strategic choices.

Its stock market value has plummeted, to the point of being dislodged in September from the FTSE 100, the leading index of the London financial market.

The luxury sector in general was counting on the US market to counterbalance the slowdown in sales in China, but it must now face the customs duties announced by Donald Trump.

As a result of these uncertainties, Burberry announced on Wednesday new cost-saving measures of 60 million pounds by 2027, in addition to 40 million pounds announced previously.

These measures “could have an impact on approximately 1,700 positions worldwide during the term of the programme”, Burberry said. This represents more than 18 percent of the approximately 9,300 employees the company has, according to its latest annual report.

“After a difficult first half, we have made steady progress in implementing our strategic plan”, said chief executive officer Joshua Schulman, quoted in the statement.

“The resilience of our outerwear and scarf categories reaffirms my belief that we have the most opportunities where we have the most authenticity”, he added.

This article was translated to English using an AI tool.