Mulberry bounces back with festive trading boost
The luxury fashion firm reported a 21% slump in revenue in 2024.
Luxury handbag maker Mulberry has revealed strong sales growth over the festive period as its turnaround strategy begins to pay off.
The Somerset-based group said global retail and digital like-for-like sales lifted 11% for the 13 weeks to December 27, crediting its strong performance to the group’s ongoing delivery of its new strategy to reinvigorate the business.
Mulberry – which teamed up with Wicked star Cynthia Erivo for a campaign to relaunch its Roxanne bag collection – reported its strongest growth in Europe, excluding the UK, where like-for-like sales were up 27.2%.
By comparison, in the UK, like-for-like sales rose 6.5%.
Shares in the group surged as much as 10% in morning trading on Wednesday, before settling around 5% higher.
Andrea Baldo, chief executive of Mulberry said: “While there remains plenty more to be done, it is encouraging to see the early signs of our Back to the Mulberry Spirit strategy delivering.”
The company launched a turnaround of the business in late 2024, which saw 85 jobs axed – around a quarter of its workforce.
It also raised £20 million in June last year to help support its transformation, after revenue slumped 21% in 2024.
In November, it was revealed the company had slashed its losses by more than half.
“We’re still early in the turnaround, but the foundations we’ve put in place are working, and we’re starting to see that reflected in performance,” Mr Baldo said at the time.
In its latest update, the company said in its report that as part of its turnaround strategy, there was a “refocus on the UK market and consumer” which helped to deliver growth “amid a backdrop of more challenging growth in the wider retail market”.
Sales growth slowed in December for retailers in the UK, with total retail sales up by 1.2% year-on-year, well below last December’s growth of 3.2%, according to data from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG.
The fashion sector overall has lagged food sales over the festive period, as retailers grapple with fragile consumer confidence and increased online competition.
Despite this challenging retail environment, Mulberry delivered particularly strong growth in its retail full-price sales, which were up 19% on a like-for-like basis.
Mr Baldo said the brand is entering 2026 with “good momentum” and remains “laser focused on continuing to deliver our strategy and build a sustainable, profitable business for the long term”.
