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Gloucestershire Business News

More trouble for Superdry as finance boss steps down

Cheltenham-based Superdry's CFO will leave the business at the end of March.

Shaun Wills will depart following disappointing half year results, as reported by This Is Money.

Wills joined Superdry in April 2021, having previously spent three years as finance director of Marks & Spencer's clothing and home business.

Former McColls exec, Giles David, will join the business on Monday (January 29) and be supported by Wills until his departure.

Half year results reported today (January 26), for the 26 weeks to October 28, show sales were down 23.5% on the same period last year, from £287.2m to £219.8m.

Retail sales were down 13.1% and wholesale sales fell by 41.1%.

Superdry said it was impacted by the challenging consumer market, unseasonal autumn weather and the underperformance of its wholesale business.

Julian Dunkerton, Superdry's founder and CEO admitted there have been difficulties, but is confident things will improve.

He said: "This has clearly been a difficult period for Superdry. A challenging consumer retail market, set against a backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty and some remarkably unseasonal weather conditions have all combined to weaken the financial performance of the Group. These macro and external factors have been further exacerbated by the underperformance of our Wholesale segment.

"Despite the near-term difficulties, we have made significant operational strides over the half year as part of our ongoing turnaround. Our cost savings programme remains on track and our inventory reduction programme is progressing well.

"Our efforts continue to focus on rightsizing the cost base and creating an operating model suitable for the needs of the organisation over the longer-term. Christmas trading proved challenging, and we do not expect market conditions to get any easier in the near-term. However, I firmly believe we are taking the right steps for the business and the brand, to return Superdry to profitability."

At 12pm today, Superdry's shares were 16.08p - a fall of around 89% over the last 12 months.

Last year, Superdry secured up to £25m in funding from restructuring specialist Hilco Capital to help fund its turnaround plan. This is on top of its existing £80m asset-backed loan with Bantry Bay Capital.

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