Christopher Bailey takes Angela Ahrendts’s Burberry spot

Architect of the revival

Angela Ahrendts has spent nearly ten years with Burberry and has managed to reinvigorate the “dormant” brand,
putting it back onto the international luxury map. Burberry has recently announced a 17 % retail
turnover increase, arriving at 694 million pounds (820 million euro) for the
first six months of its fiscal year, ending 30 September 2013.

The like-for-like retail turnover increase was 13 %, thanks to double-digit
growth in the Asia/Pacific region and the Europe/Middle East/India/Africa
region. The group turnover grew 14 %
over the past six months, to 1.03 billion pounds (1.2 billion euro). These
numbers mean that the Burberry share is quite popular with investors: its stock exchange value has
soared 41 % over the past year, reaching a total of some 8 billion euro.

Apple’s retailing boss

Angela Ahrendts will become Apple’s “senior
vice-president retail & online stores” next summer, a newly created position. She will
report directly to CEO Tim Cook, but it is unclear how much Angela, currently
Great Britain’s biggest-earning CEO, will earn at Apple.

“Burberry is in brilliant shape. I am confident that Christopher, as
one of this generation’s greatest visionaries, will continue to lead Burberry to new heights,” Ahrendts
said. Baily has worked for Burberry since 2001 and has been its chief creative
officer for the past six years. He will now combine the position of CEO with
that of CCO.

Chairman Sir John Peace considered Ahrendts’s departure as “a natural
progression” and he has expressed his faith in the new CEO.
“I have no doubt that Christopher’s vision and leadership, with the excellent
management team in place, will keep Burberry on the forefront creatively,
digitally and financially.”