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.
Today 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.
The revamped store on Oxford Street is as good as it ever was. The range of clothes wider and less garish than before.
The finances are challenging, but even the mighty JD Sports just issued a profit warning after a miserable Christmas. Dunkerton would admit the Superdry brand lost its way. The hope comes from deals signed overseas in Asia and elsewhere.
Some retail pros still think the brand has a value, that enough people, of all ages, will like the clothes even if they don’t care for the logo.
The kind way to look at the business is to say not that it is nearly dead, but that it still breathing. The obvious thing would be to take Superdry off the stock market while crucial surgery is done.
If Dunkerton can’t save the business, no one can.
