On Thursday evening, as I was racing to the gate to catch my flight to Athens something caught my eye. A new Burberry store had opened on the main concourse of Heathrow Terminal 5. Next to the identikit luxury stores gleaming with marble and gloss, the Burberry store looked different with its stark minimalist interiors. More like a blank canvas than a traditional luxury store concept, it was developed by former chief creative officer Riccardo Tisci, along with the Italian architect Vincenzo De Cotiis.
But it is Tisci’s successor, Daniel Lee, who has now taken the creative reins and made the store design his own, layering on top his new brand identity for Burberry which was first introduced in February and is now increasingly visible across the brand’s advertising campaigns and retail network.
A major criticism of Riccardo Tisci’s Burberry was that he never really managed to channel Burberry’s Britishness. When his predecessor, Christopher Bailey, who hails from Yorkshire, first rebooted Burberry alongside CEO Angela Ahrendts and grew it into the UK’s largest luxury brand, a big part of the success was because he told authentic stories rooted in the brand’s British heritage.
Like Christopher, Daniel also hails from Yorkshire and even grew up near the Castleford factory where Burberry still manufactures its iconic trench coats.
Daniel seemed to be perfectly positioned to boost Burberry’s fortunes and lift the brand into the true luxury category. Not only does he have British roots, he is a strong accessories designer with a proven track record, having already reinvigorated Bottega Veneta, another dusty heritage brand that was in need of a refresh, with a sense of modernity, personality and youthfulness.
But this week, when Burberry announced a dramatic slowdown in revenue growth from 18 percent last quarter to just one percent in Q2, and warned that it was unlikely to meet its annual revenue forecasts for 2024, its shares slumped by almost 10 percent.
So what’s going on?
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