The Burberry business model: creating an international luxury fashion brand

Abstract

The performance of the British fashion brand Burberry has been determined largely by the adoption of business models which, on occasion, have been detrimental to the company's performance. For the financial year ending 31 March 1998, Burberry saw its annual profits drop from £62m to £25m, leading financial analysts to describe it as “an outdated business with a fashion cachet of almost zero”. However, from 1997, at the instigation of a newly appointed chief executive, Rose Marie Bravo, Burberry has radically re‐aligned its business model and has enjoyed, as a result, significant improvements in its business performance. Drawing from extensive documentation that was published by Burberry in support of their initial public offering (IPO), this paper will provide a review of the history of Burberry; evaluate Burberry's re‐positioning strategy as defined by the firm in their IPO prospectus; and critically delineate Burberry's current business model.

Citation

Moore, C.M. and Birtwistle, G. (2004), "The Burberry business model: creating an international luxury fashion brand", International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 32 No. 8, pp. 412-422. https://doi.org/10.1108/09590550410546232