Mulberry secures 20 million pound fundraising as full year sales take hit

Mulberry has confirmed a 20 million pound fundraising and Retail Offer as sales for the British accessory brand continued to slip in fiscal year 2025. The company conducted the fundraising by way of subscriptions for 20 million new convertible loan notes of one pound each, backed by its two major shareholders, Chalice Limited and Frasers Group.

The fundraising intends to support targeted investments to accelerate future growth, Mulberry said in a regulatory filing, while also helping the brand to meet its stated medium term financial targets. To further this mission, Mulberry is also looking towards a separate Retail Offer, the full subscription of which would raise an additional 1.2 million pounds for the company.

The announcement of the fundraising comes as Mulberry continues to exhibit signs of financial turbulence. For the year to March 29, 2025, the group reported a 21 percent decline in revenue to 120.4 million pounds, “reflecting challenging macro-economic conditions”. While North American retail was more marginal in its drop at 1 percent, UK retail and digital revenue was down 20 percent, largely due to inflationary pressures and uncertainty among consumers.

Losses also widened over the period, increasing from 22.6 million pounds last year to 23.7 million pounds. Mulberry’s gross margin, meanwhile, decreased from 70.1 percent to 66.8 percent, “driven by the inventory optimisation in FY25”, which involved promotional, markdown and wholesale activity.

Frasers’ James France joins Mulberry board

Mulberry is continuing to move forward with its ‘Back to the Mulberry Spirit’ turnaround strategy, first announced in January. Through this, it intends to restore profitability by simplifying and realigning the brand. Such efforts have already taken shape in the closure of 12 “loss-making” stores in Asia, putting focus back on the UK and US, and targeted international expansion through partnerships and commercial agreements with the likes of Liberty, Nordstrom, Flannels and Australia’s David Jones.

To strengthen its leadership team, which has also undergone a restructuring, the company has appointed James France to the board as non-executive director. France currently serves on the leadership team at Frasers Group, which owns a 37.1 percent stake in Mulberry. His appointment thus reflects a relationship agreement between Mulberry and Frasers.

Looking ahead to FY26, Mulberry said the current trading year has been “in line” with expectations, with the nine weeks ended June 1 seeing an 18 percent YoY decline across all departments. The company noted that it would continue “optimising its store portfolio”, a process that is anticipated to deliver a two million pound improvement in underlying EBITDA.

In a statement, Mulberry CEO, Andrea Baldo, said the additional capital injection from both major shareholders “will enable us to keep moving with pace – investing in product, digital and international growth to deliver long-term value”. Baldo continued: "Whilst the external environment remains challenging, we are energised by the opportunities ahead and remain focused on restoring profitability and achieving our medium-term targets of over 200 million pounds in annual revenue and a 15 percent. adjusted EBIT margin."