Post-Christmas lull impacts peak trading period for Superdry

Fashion brand Superdry has announced a “lower than expected” performance in its peak trading period between October 27 and January 4.

In a trading update this morning, the brand revealed its £23m retail sales since Black Friday were lower than initially anticipated, and that ‘subdued consumer demand’ in the period immediately after Christmas has impacted performance.

In addition to a challenging market, the brand attributed the reduced performance to a shortage of popular stock, as well as ‘unprecedented’ levels of retail offers in the market as a whole.

Julian Dunkerton, chief executive officer at Superdry, said: “Everyone at Superdry continues to work intensively to deliver the turnaround of the business. While we have always said it will take time, we continue to make progress in implementing our strategy.

“A key element of this is to focus on and return to full price sales and reduce promotional activity, and we halved the proportion of discounted sales over our peak trading period, benefitting both our margins and the Superdry brand.

“However this adversely affected our sales during the peak trading period given the level of promotional activity in the market.

“Despite this, our disciplined plan to reinvigorate the brand and return Superdry to sustainable long-term growth is on track.”