Mulberry announces resignation of CEO

#16
It would definitely boost customer confidence if they appt creative director soon. I am glad he has gone as it was clear that things were going downhill rapidly. He had no regard for the existing customer base and loyalty.
 
#17
Bagstar said:
Good news, can't say I am sorry. At last a step in the right direction, hopefully they will appoint someone who has more empathy with existing loyal customers. At the end of the day it is 'Sales' that count wether from the UK or Internationally it should not make any difference.

All they need to do now is sort out that Cara Bag before it is too late. If they were to scale it back & introduce it as a cheaper diffusion line then they could possibly have a winner on their hands as it would appeal to the younger set & hopefully bring a lot more people on board.

Maybe they will reinstate Emma Hill to put some fun / quirkiness back into the brand which has sadly been lacking of late. But maybe that is a bit too much to hope for. :yahoo::woohoo::yahoo:
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I liked Emma!
others may have found it a little tacky but I loved the quirkiness and the sense of humour the brand had under her.
 
#18
CPrincessUK said:
I liked Emma!
others may have found it a little tacky but I loved the quirkiness and the sense of humour the brand had under her.
Click to expand...

Totally agree I may not have liked everything she has done but at least it was always fun. Waiting for the new collections there was always a sense of anticipation to see what was coming, now I am not even bothered about watching. I also notice that the share price has risen slightly on this news so it seems that we are not the only ones to think this is a step in the right direction. :dothewave:
 
#19
For me this was an unexpected move, guess public opinion got too much for him. Shares holding steady at the moment but will be interested in seeing how it moves over today and tomorrow.
 
#20
I'm relatively new to Mulberry, but even I was side-eyeing the price hike between 2013-2014, as I was saving up for an Alexa and it suddenly seemed like I'd be saving for a lot longer. I'm really interested to see what happens next!
 
#21
Bagstar said:
Totally agree I may not have liked everything she has done but at least it was always fun. Waiting for the new collections there was always a sense of anticipation to see what was coming, now I am not even bothered about watching. I also notice that the share price has risen slightly on this news so it seems that we are not the only ones to think this is a step in the right direction. :dothewave:
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hehe.
give me a HIP HIP...........
:party:
 
#22
This is really unexpected news - I'm very suprised.

I have to say if I'd recently paid for a bag that was then discounted (not including the outlets) I'd be bloody seething.

With any luck Mulberry will go back to designing pieces like the old icons, along with newer fun pieces.

I still want a Clemmie but I'm buggered if I'm paying £700 for a clutch.
 
#24
Even though it might not be a surprise from the consumer's perspective (as the man has been deeply unpopular, no question about that), I'm still very surprised from a business perspective because the majority shareholders continued to show tacit support for him/his strategy after the Feb profit warning. Plus, I really didn't expect the Board to halt a long-term development strategy halfway in its tracks. The message that it sends is almost an admission that they'd screwed up business strategy, which is simply not something that you expect a listed company to publicly admit to, even if the evidence is clear. Although I note that the press release is worded rather delicately in terms of Guillon having improved quality.

So I'm wondering what drove his resignation; what might have changed in these intervening 2 months? It doesn't seem like a boardroom coup since there doesn't appear to be a replacement lined up. The financial year ends 31 March; perhaps the year-end outlook is even bleaker than the profit warning. And, as someone else noted above, maybe the Cara backpacks have not generated the waiting list frenzy that they were counting on. I still think it's strange. Would love to know if he was pushed, or jumped of his own accord.
 
#25
I think they will announce a new director soon - they need some good publicity - and maybe a designer has been in mind for a while but didn't want to work with Bruno

I agree that I don't think they can reduce prices for current collections as people would demand a refund - but future collections we can "hope" will be much more in line of decent prices that people could actually afford.
 
#27
Silversun said:
Even though it might not be a surprise from the consumer's perspective (as the man has been deeply unpopular, no question about that), I'm still very surprised from a business perspective because the majority shareholders continued to show tacit support for him/his strategy after the Feb profit warning. Plus, I really didn't expect the Board to halt a long-term development strategy halfway in its tracks. The message that it sends is almost an admission that they'd screwed up business strategy, which is simply not something that you expect a listed company to publicly admit to, even if the evidence is clear. Although I note that the press release is worded rather delicately in terms of Guillon having improved quality.

So I'm wondering what drove his resignation; what might have changed in these intervening 2 months? It doesn't seem like a boardroom coup since there doesn't appear to be a replacement lined up. The financial year ends 31 March; perhaps the year-end outlook is even bleaker than the profit warning. And, as someone else noted above, maybe the Cara backpacks have not generated the waiting list frenzy that they were counting on. I still think it's strange. Would love to know if he was pushed, or jumped of his own accord.
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My guess is that the Cara range was his last chance to show that his strategy was working - and that if it didn't generate the hoped-for waiting list, that would have been the nail in the coffin after all the profit warnings.

So-called "resignations" at CEO level aren't always voluntary, but are sometimes called that to allow the person to walk away with a degree of dignity and a nice payout...

I wouldn't wish anyone any ill will, but I do think he was completely the wrong person for Mulberry, and had to go - and the board had better make sure they recruit the right person to turn around the decline. The huge number of quality issues, alienation of a loyal client base, and failure to listen to feedback have all been damaging - but Mulberry can be saved with the right person at the helm.

Here's hoping this gets sorted quickly!
 
#28
A bit of good news at last. Even if they don't bring prices down we should at least see the end of the price rises for a good while. Maybe they could introduce new styles at more realistic prices.
 
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