Superdry to axe up to 200 jobs in cost-cutting initiative

The fashion retailer, which recorded a 1.5% slip in third-quarter sales to £269.3m earlier this month, has approximately 1,000 employees at its Cheltenham headquarters, where the bulk of job cuts will be made.

In an internal email sent to staff on Monday and seen by the Evening Standard, chief executive Euan Sutherland said: “Jobs are likely to change and there will be some job losses.”

New creative director Phil Dickinson – who joined the fashion brand six weeks ago to replace co-founder and former product and brand director Julian Dunkerton – reportedly told Superdry’s creative and marketing team that the retailer needed ”to secure £20m of operational efficiencies and improvements”.

A spokeswoman for the retailer said: “As announced at our interim results in December, we have embarked on a cost transformation programme. As part of that, we have started a process of consultation with colleagues about how it will impact our central head office functions.”

The struggling retailer issued its second profit warning in less than a year in December as profits plunged 49% to £12.9m despite a 3.1% uplift in group revenue to £414.6m.

The retailer’s round of job cuts comes amid a battle between the fashion retailer’s management and Dunkerton, who demanded an extraordinary general meeting to appoint him as a non-executive director earlier this month.

Superdry said Dunkerton’s reappointment as a director would be “counter-productive, highly disruptive and likely to lead to resignations”.