This is a test liveblog post. Recap: Yesterday's top stories
A few years back satirical website The Daily Mash had a pop at Superdry.
A middle-aged man at a middle-class barbecue dares not to wear a Superdry t-shirt. “Onlookers described the mood… growing increasingly hostile, until a hot dog was thrown at his back… that was the trigger for the primal rage.
The other, normal, Superdry dads starting hooting and lobbing things.” The joke being made was that Superdry had become too ubiquitous for its own good. For a while, it was cool. Then it was everywhere.
Then kids realised they didn’t want to look like dad.
The brand value collapsed. Its present woes, exacerbated by general strife on the high street and by the pandemic, are an extension of that.
Yesterday it confirmed the inevitable — it is looking at a restructure likely to include store closures and job cuts.
CEO Julian Dunkerton would mostly agree with the critics. But the period when Superdry tried to over-expand, imagined itself as a global lifestyle brand, didn’t happen on his watch. He had left, only returning in anger to try to salvage the business.
The company he re-inherited was a total mess. It still is, but he’s doing his best. If Dunkerton can’t save the business, no one can.
