Julian Dunkerton, the-co founder and reinstated boss of Superdry, on Thursday greeted the City with a fresh profit warning just weeks after he returned to the retailer after an acrimonious row with previous management.
The company, whose clothes are favoured by the seemingly disparate camps of “cool dads” and teenagers, said that pre-tax profits would be lower than analysts’ forecasts — the third time the business has sounded the alarm in the past year.
The City had been expecting full-year underlying profits of up to £59.4 million, but weak wholesale and online sales triggered the alert.
Superdry will reveal its final full-year results in July.
Despite this, and a 4.5% fall in revenues for the quarter to April 27, Dunkerton put on a brave face today: “Without dwelling on the past, this is why I had to come back in. I’m incredibly positive.”
He said that he had found some “easy wins” including selling 16,000 items online which had previously been “languishing in a warehouse in Europe”, as well as designing around 900 extra products.
“There are some clear retail mistakes that we can push in a positive direction,” Dunkerton added. The shares fell initially, but recovered later, trading up 9p, or 2%, to 489p.
He intends to stay on as chief executive for the foreseeable future after he was voted back onto the board by shareholders in April, prompting mass resignations from its top brass.
Dunkerton had lambasted the retailer’s strategy since he stepped down in March last year.
