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Burberry Group plc is a British luxury fashion house, distributing clothing,
fashion accessories, fragrances, sunglasses, and cosmetics.3 Its distinctive
tartan pattern has become one of its most widely copied trademarks. Burberry is
most famous for its trench coat, which was designed by founder Thomas Burberry.4
The company has branded stores and franchises around the world and also sells
through concessions in third-party stores. Queen Elizabeth II and the Prince of
Wales have granted the company Royal Warrants. The Chief Creative Officer is
Christopher Bailey. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a
constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
According to a 2013 report by Interbrands,
Burberry was the 77th most valuable brand in the world that year.
Burberry
was founded in 1856 when 21-year-old Thomas Burberry, a former draper's
apprentice, opened his own store in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England.7 By 1870,
the business had established itself by focusing on the development of outdoors
attire.7 In 1880, Burberry introduced in his brand the gabardine, a hardwearing,
water-resistant yet breathable fabric, in which the yarn is waterproofed before
weaving.7 "Burberry" was the original name, but then the company soon switched
to using the name "Burberrys", after many customers from around the world began
calling it "Burberrys of London". This name is still visible on many older
Burberry products. In 1891 Burberry opened a shop in the Haymarket, London.
In 1901, the Burberry Equestrian Knight Logo was developed containing the Latin
word "Prorsum", meaning forwards, and registered as a trademark.7 In 1911 they
became the outfitters for Roald Amundsen,7 the first man to reach the South
Pole, and Ernest Shackleton, who led a 1914 expedition to cross Antarctica. A
Burberry gabardine jacket was worn by George Mallory on his ill-fated attempt on
Mount Everest in 1924.8
In 1914, Burberry was commissioned by the War Office
to adapt its officer's coat to suit the conditions of contemporary warfare,
resulting in the "trench coat".7 After the war, the trench coat became popular
with civilians. The iconic Burberry check was created in the 1920s and used as a
lining in its trench coats.7
Burberry also specially designed aviation
garments. A.E. Clouston and Betty Kirby-Green made the fastest flying time to
Cape Town from London in 1937 and were sponsored by Burberry.9
Burberry was
an independent company until 1955, when it was taken over by Great Universal
Stores (GUS).10
During the 1970s, the brand became popular with the British
casual cult, leading to its being associated with members of football firms by
the 1990s and 'chav's the following decade.1112
In 1998, Burberrys changed
their marketing name to Burberry.In May 2001, Christopher Bailey joined Burberry
as creative director.1415 GUS divested its remaining interest in Burberry in
December 2005.16 Burberry Group plc was initially floated on the London Stock
Exchange in July 2002.17 In 2005, Sanyo-shokai was the Burberry ready-to-wear
licence holder in Japan with retail value of €435 million.18
In 2006 Rose
Marie Bravo, who as Chief Executive had led Burberry to mass market success
through licensing, decided to retire.19 She was replaced by another American
Angela Ahrendts,20 who joined from Liz Claiborne in January 2006, and took up
the position of CEO on 1 July 2006. Ahrendts and Bailey successfully turned
around the then Chav-like reputation that the brand had acquired at the end of
Bravo's tenure, by removing the brand's iconic check-pattern from all but 10% of
the company's products and buying out the Spanish franchise that was worth 20%
of group revenues.211422 Part of the new design-led drive and vision was taken
from admiring and learning lessons from iconic leading design brands, including
Apple Inc.21 Burberry first began selling online in the US, followed by the UK
in October 2006, and the rest of the EU in 2007.23 Bailey became Chief Creative
Officer in November 2009, whilst it was reported that during 2012 Ahrendts was
the highest paid CEO in the UK, making £16.9m,24 the first time a woman topped
the table.In recent years, Burberry has attempted to rebrand itself with
advertisements in GQ, Esquire, Vogue, Tatler and Harper's Bazaar, and is well
known for using British celebrities in its advertising, including models Kate
Moss, Agyness Deyn, Jourdan Dunn and Lily Donaldson, singer George Craig,
actress Emma Watson, who was named the face of Burberry's 2009 autumn/winter
campaign and the cover model for the 2010 spring/summer campaign,2627 and Rosie
Huntington-Whiteley, who was unveiled as the face of Burberry's newest
fragrance, Burberry Body, in July 2011.28 In June 2010, the Group launched its
first cosmetics line, Burberry Beauty.29
In October 2013 it was announced
that Ahrendts would take up the position of Senior Vice President of retail and
online at Apple, Inc. from April 2014, and be replaced as CEO by Bailey. During
her tenure, sales increased to over £2Bn, and shares gained more than threefold
to £7Bn.30 Although Burberry promotes its British connection, according to The
Guardian, a British national daily newspaper, as of July 2012, Burberry
maintains only two production facilities in Great Britain, one in Castleford
producing raincoats, and a smaller one in Keighley.
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