Mulberry swings to loss following House of Fraser collapse

Mulberry
A Mulberry store in London, England.

Mulberry reported its full-year results on Wednesday, swinging to a £5 million loss.

The luxury British brand reported revenue of £166.3 million for the year to March 30, down from £169.7 million during the same period a year ago.

Whilst international sales rose by 7%, this was offset by a 6% decline in its UK market.

This was attributed to the collapse of House of Fraser, which housed various Mulberry concessions.

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Mulberry reported a pre-tax loss of £5 million, swinging to a loss from £6.9 million the previous year.

The company opted for full-year dividend of 5.0p per share.

Thierry Andretta, group chief executive, commented on the results:

“The Group has delivered results in line with expectations and is making good progress in advancing its International strategy and direct to customer model whilst managing a challenging UK market.

We have established new subsidiaries in Japan and South Korea and introduced important digital partnerships in China. International and omni-channel sales, driven by our customer centric focus, are increasing as a result.

Looking ahead, we anticipate that International and Digital sales will continue to grow whilst UK retail trading conditions are expected to remain uncertain. The Group plans to invest further in its new Asian entities during this development phase, enhance its global digital platform and optimise the UK network.”

Mulberry has been struggling to recreate the success of the mid-2000’s, when the marked popularity of its Alexa bag lead to record sales.

It has since brought in a new creative head in the form of Johnny Coca, formerly at Celine and Louis Vuitton, to revitalise the fashion brand.

Shares in the company (LON:MUL) are currently +4.67% as of 10:51AM (GMT).