Superdry boss Dunkerton rips up predecessor’s strategy

Dunkerton, who is Superdry’s interim chief executive following his election to the board and the resignation of other directors including Sutherland, has cancelled a childrenswear range and pulled out of a footwear licensing deal with Pentland Brands, The Sunday Times reported.

Licensing had been central to Sutherland’s plans to boost performance at Superdry, which had issued a string of profit warnings over the last year. It was thought that licensing could add £10m to Superdry’s profits each year.

Dunkerton had been a vocal critic of Superdry’s management and strategy after he left the business in March last year.

He subsequently agitated for his return to the board, along with former Boohoo chair and Selfridge’s chief executive Peter Williams, who is now chairman of Superdry.

Dunkerton aims to revive Superdry’s performance by, among other things, reutilising co-founder James Holder’s product consultancy DesignLab, increasing the SKU count, improving product quality, bringing more production near-shore, reducing discounting and emulating online etail giants by introducing product ‘drops’ to ensure newness online while sticking to a two-season model in-store.

He said upon his return: “We have a wonderful opportunity to take this brand and this business to the next, exciting phase of its growth and development.”