Andrea Baldo knew the job wouldn’t be easy when he took the reins at Mulberry in September.
In the six months ending in September, revenue plunged 19 percent to £56.1 million and losses were widening. The company’s stock traded near a 15-year low. Less than a month into his tenure, Mulberry was forced to issue new shares to raise cash, prompting Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group to make an unsolicited takeover bid.
Mulberry rejected that offer. But it was clear that something needed to change, and fast. Among Baldo’s first big moves was to stop bleeding cash. He cut a quarter of corporate jobs globally.
But the heart of Baldo’s plan to reverse the brand’s downward trajectory involves a return ot its British roots. For years, he said, Mulberry had missed key trends, lost cultural relevance and many of its customers.
“We forgot about the UK for the past few years,” he said. “We first need to win at home. It’s actually quite a simple business, we just need to focus on doing what we’re good at.”
Mulberry was founded by British businessman Roger Saul in 1971 in Somerset. Saul drew inspiration from his own lifestyle between the bucolic British countryside and multicultural, fast-paced London. The country-and-city duality is central to the ethos at Mulberry, which still produces roughly half of its bags in Somerset (the rest are made in Turkey).
An attempt in the 2010s to reposition as a luxury brand backfired spectacularly. Brexit, the pandemic and a weak UK economy have hampered repeated attempts to recover. Even so, Baldo said the UK, which makes up over 60 percent of Mulberry’s sales, remains essential to the brand’s future.
By refocusing on Britishness, Mulberry wants to win back its archetype customer: a British woman, now aged 45-55, who connected with the brand around 15 years ago, when it reached peak cultural relevance. Around 2012, Mulberry had its share of It-bag moments. Collaborations with British influencer Alexa Chung and sightings of its icons on stars like Lana Del Rey catapulted Mulberry to the cusp of cool.
“We lost and need to regain those customers,” Baldo said.
An English Bag in New York
At the same time, Baldo wants to win over two other types of customers: the young, urban career woman and the fashion-forward Gen-Z girl whose tastes will set the tone for long-term cultural relevance. Geographically, aside from its UK home turf, Mulberry is setting its sights across the pond.
“Without a good US presence it is hard to scale globally for any brand,” said Baldo.
For Mulberry in particular, the timing for stateside market growth seems right: “British accents and humour resonate well in the US at this moment. No matter your personal opinion, the current political scene will unleash customers at our price point,” Baldo said. The average Mulberry bag retails between $975-$1,495.
Mulberry’s main US-wholesale partner is Nordstrom, with wholesale comprising 10 percent of the brand’s global sales, though Baldo aims to increase this to 15-20 percent.
“I spent most of my career in wholesale and it has its merits, showcasing a brand in a customer-centric way, testing a market before we commit to opening cost-intensive retail locations,” he said.
The Luxury Opportunity
Mulberry learned its lesson about raising prices too quickly a decade ago. Now it’s hoping to benefit from some of its rivals making the same mistake.
Many luxury brands have doubled or even tripled prices of their most popular bags, putting them out of reach of many customers. Sales are slowing as a result, but labels will be reluctant to lower prices or introduce discounting in order to protect their brands.
Mulberry, meanwhile, positions itself in the entry-level luxury category along the likes of Jacquemus, Marni and Stella McCartney. Its bags typically cost around $1,200, where a luxury brand such as Bottega Veneta might charge four times as much.
“This creates a huge white space for brands like us,” said Baldo.
The real pressure is coming from below, where a crowded field of accessible luxury players sell bags in the $300 to $600 price range. Notable brands in the “bridge” category include Danish lifestyle brand Ganni, which Baldo presided over prior to joining Mulberry, Marc Jacobs and French handbag success Polène.
Coach, another player in the “bridge” category, was named the world’s fifth hottest brand in the fourth quarter by Lyst, which noted its popularity with Gen-Z.
Mulberry hopes to carve out its own space, somewhere between Ganni and Bottega.
“Heritage is what sets luxury brands apart from contemporary ones,” Baldo said. “A newer brand can’t compete with a heritage story, and longevity is important in luxury. Also, made in the UK has a different connotation than made in Spain or Portugal.”
Heritage brands need to be seen as creative and energetic too, and that’s something Baldo admits Mulberry has struggled with.
“Creativity has been lost,” he said.
“We want to put London back on the map. My gut feeling tells me that in a few years, the world will see the cultural relevance of London again.”
