Julian Dunkerton

It has been a turbulent year for Superdry, and its co-founder and CEO Julian Dunkerton.

Following a bitter boardroom battle, and acrimony about the brand’s direction and performance – underlying pre-tax profit for the year to 27 April 2019 plummeted 56.8% year on year to £41.9m – Dunkerton was reinstated as a non-executive director and interim CEO of Superdry in April.

However, Dunkerton’s comeback resulted in the resignation of the entire board. He set about rebuilding the team with key replacements including Helen Weir, former Marks & Spencer CFO, as senior independent director and Alastair Miller, ex-CFO at New Look, as chair of the audit committee. Nick Gresham was promoted from interim to permanent CFO in August. In October, Dunkerton’s contract was extended to April 2021.

He has set out plans to cut back on discounting and “re-angle” the product to focus on bestselling categories such as outerwear.

And he plans to grow the marketing team headcount, “increasing investment behind our brand and marketing activities”.