LONDON — The Mulberry puzzle is coming together, but it’s going to take time, said Andrea Baldo, chief executive officer of the brand, which on Thursday reported a 21 percent decline in group revenue to 120.4 million pounds, and a pretax loss of 31.8 million pounds for fiscal 2025.
The pretax loss for the year ended March 29 was smaller compared with the previous year’s 34.1 million pounds. The narrowing was due to cost-cutting measures and around 12 store closures, which Baldo enacted as soon as he arrived in September, midway through the 2025 fiscal year.
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In an interview, Baldo said Mulberry suffered last year from “the combined effect of a very challenging macroeconomic environment for luxury, a moment of transition for the industry, and the brand’s previous strategy not performing.”
Baldo said he worked quickly to reduce the cost structure (including laying off head office staff), resize the company, cut inventory, “and do everything we could to safeguard cash.”
Most of the stores he shut were in China, where the luxury slowdown has been severe. He also brokered wholesale deals with stores such as Nordstrom in the U.S. and David Jones in Australia.
The brand is looking to drive further international expansion and new partnerships with Harvey Nichols, Liberty, Flannels and John Lewis in the U.K.
The medium-term aim, Baldo said, is for wholesale to account for around 15 percent of business.
“We know it’s going to take time — at least a year of fighting before we see the final result of our hard work,” said Baldo, whose ambition, over the midterm, is to achieve annual revenue in excess of 200 million pounds and to deliver an adjusted EBIT, earnings before interest and taxes, margin of 15 percent.
In the interview, Baldo added that some positive trends have emerged in the first weeks of the fiscal year.
For the nine weeks ended June 1, group revenue across retail, digital and wholesale declined by 18 percent year-over-year, “in line” with the board’s expectations. Baldo said the double-digit decline reflects the store closures, and the impact of loss-making and underperforming stores.
Retail and digital revenue declined by 17 percent on a reported basis. Like-for-like retail and digital revenue declined by 5 percent.
He added that a continued focus on optimizing the store portfolio and reducing markdowns is expected to deliver a further 2 million pound improvement to underlying EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, in fiscal 2026.
The company has already delivered 5.9 million pounds in annualized gross cost savings, achieving a lower sustainable cost base in the current financial year.
During the first nine weeks, key markets such as the U.K. and North America showed an “improving trend” in like-for-like performance, trading 1 and 5 percent behind the prior year, respectively.
In addition, full-price retail and digital sales in both markets were ahead year-over-year, and “demonstrating positive momentum.” Mulberry.com continued to outperform the prior year, “underlining the strength of the group’s direct-to-consumer digital channel.”
Mulberry said wholesale is “well-positioned” for growth in fiscal 2026, with orders for the spring 2026 collection up in the double digits compared with the corresponding period last year.
The Bayswater family remained the leading contributor to bag sales, while mini bags delivered strong year-over-year growth, reflecting ongoing consumer demand for trend-led product.
Earlier this year, Mulberry launched its brand campaign, “A Return to Somerset,” celebrating the brand’s heritage, English roots and factory headquarters. A second installment of the campaign will be released in September.
Baldo added that Mulberry has also been focusing on “customer proximity,” with more in-store events and one-on-one services to drive desirability, and there will be more to come.
“We’ve been asking ourselves, ‘How can we get closer to our customers?’ We’ve already changed the seasonality of the product so there is more newness coming every quarter, and we’re trying to connect with tastemakers. We are doing events in the stores, and in Somerset. It’s going to take some time, but the proximity is very important for us,” he said.
Baldo has been sticking to Mulberry’s pricing strategy, making sure that 60 percent of the offer is less than 1,000 pounds. He said that only the “fashion forward product” would carry a higher price tag.
Alongside the results, Mulberry confirmed that it has raised a further 20 million pounds. The fundraise was underwritten by the brand’s main shareholder Challice Ltd., which belongs to the Singaporean billionaires Christina Ong and Ong Beng Seng, and the substantial minority shareholder Frasers Group.
Mulberry also disclosed on Thursday that it will undertake a separate retail offer to enable minority shareholders to participate in the fundraising.
Full subscription of the retail offer would raise an additional 1.2 million pounds, which will be used to drive the business and enable Baldo’s turnaround plan.
Mulberry has named James France a non-executive director starting on July 30. France is a senior member of the leadership team at Frasers with experience in real estate optimization and business development, and will represent Frasers on the board.