Name: Burberry CEO Joshua Schulman: Why We Stopped Chasing Trends
Uploaded: 2026-06-10T15:21:00Z
Duration: 22 min 52 s

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Sometimes the best way forward is back. After years of chasing industry trends, Burberry is reconnecting with the products, craftsmanship and identity that made the brand iconic. At the 2026 WSJ CEO Council Summit in London, Burberry CEO Joshua Schulman joins Emily Glazer, Enterprise Reporter at The Wall Street Journal, to discuss the company's turnaround, growth in China, and why authenticity is resonating with a new generation of consumers.

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Burberry CEO Joshua Schulman: Why We Stopped Chasing Trends

That is the rapper, A$AP Rocky. So why are we talking about A$AP Rocky and Burberry? Josh, if you don't mind, I'd love for you to bring us back a couple of months ago, I think. You saw a photo of this famous, iconic rapper, spouse of Rihanna, for those of you that don't know, and what was he wearing? And why are we even talking about him right now?

Well, it's actually a funny story, because I was actually speaking at a conference in New York, and the night before the conference, I saw this picture in the press or on my phone, which I guess is the same, now, the press and my phone.

Yeah.

And so I saw a picture online of him wearing the iconic Burberry scarf. And so I was backstage with our head of PR in the US and I complimented her. I said, you know, "He looked amazing," you know, "What did we give him? What else did we give him?" And she said, you know, "Actually we didn't give it to him at all. He just popped into our SoHo store and he was buying gifts for a lot of people, and he bought that for himself." And I'm like, "Really? That looked like something that we tried to get out there," and she said, "No, that was absolutely organic." And it was at a pivotal moment, it was about six months after I started in the company, and we had just launched the first new campaign of the new era, which was reconnecting Burberry with its original brand purpose, to protect people from the weather, heroing our iconic check, and heroing our outerwear category to reconnect us with what people love about Burberry. And so to hear that this global celebrity came into our stores and picked our most iconic item, and then was wearing it out and about, was really gratifying at that moment, and it showed a couple of things to me. One, we have the most opportunity where we have the most authenticity.

Mm.

You know, for the better part of a decade, Burberry had chased different trends, so whether that was a streetwear trend, or whether that was, you know, a very niche trend.

High-end luxury leather.

Yeah, you know, different industry trends, but when we are true to ourselves, we have the most opportunity where we have the most authenticity. And so that was just a great milestone of the last couple of years.

I love that, I wanna dig into this whole idea of Burberry protecting you from the elements. You know, it makes sense. You might not always think that, but with A$AP Rocky and getting the scarf, I think about these scarf bars that you popped up. And so you're coming up on two years as CEO, there is a turnaround going on, there is a transformation, We're not just saying it 'cause we're here. Why invent these scarf bars? What does that mean?

Yeah, so starting with, you know, our original purpose to protect people from the elements, you know, Burberry's 170 years old, and our founder, Thomas Burberry, he was more of an innovator, I would say, than even a fashion designer. And he was looking at innovative fabrics, and at the time, you know, it rained a lot in the UK and-

Nothing's changed.

Nothing's changed.

Right, guys?

Nothing's changed. It's a good place to found an outerwear company. In any case, you know, he was trying to come up with a cloth that could be worn outside during the rain, and at the time there were only very heavy, waxed items, but nothing that felt comfortable or looked good, or breathed on the body when you were wearing it. So he came up with a cloth that was called gabardine, and the gabardine, the way it's woven allows the water to slide off rather than get absorbed into the fabric. So that is really, you know, one of the important stories at the heart of Burberry, that this item protects you from the weather. And so that gabardine today, we continue to make in our Burberry mill in Yorkshire, and we manufacture our heritage raincoats, also, in a different facility in Yorkshire from that gabardine. You know, over the years, the company had introduced other categories, and one of those other categories were beautiful cashmere scarves, Scottish cashmere, and another one of our iconic elements is our iconic check which originally was in the lining of the trench coat, and then this was several generations past Thomas, but, you know, the check was incorporated into the iconic Burberry scarf.

And why have these scarf bars, did you feel like the company lost its way a little bit and you really needed to bring it back to those heritage items in a accessible way?

Well, it's a great question, because, you know, I mentioned, you know, for about a decade, we were chasing different aesthetics and different customer segments, and there was a philosophy that scarves were for a more mature customer, and that we wouldn't be able to attract young customers by having scarves front and center in the brand. And so when I arrived, we had visual guidelines that you could only display 20% of your SKUs, of your stock keeping units, on the floor of the store, and that most of your scarf inventory had to be in drawers or in the back of house. And, you know, that didn't really ring true to me, and at various times in the history of Burberry, we have had more robust scarf displays on the floor, including earlier versions of the scarf bars that we had taken out over the years. So this was a way to do a few things. It was to inject a sense of discovery in our stores, and to allow a dialogue between our customers and our client advisors, and use scarves as an anchor to also further distinguish us from other brands that have other core categories. And frankly speaking, it was also, you know, a very targeted and important capital investment on our part to drive more productivity in our stores after a period where we had challenges in our financial performance. So, you know, you mentioned this was a turnaround, and, you know, we had strategies around product, around marketing, but also in terms of our store estate and how do you, within a luxury context, drive more productivity? And the scarf bars kind of ticked all boxes.

Yes, we're not just a showroom, we're trying to actually sell the pieces that people come into the store for. I know we have some CEOs, certainly, that are in the retail sector. I wanna do one other quick story.

Yes.

Then we've gotta pivot to China,

Okay, yeah.

Because you guys are doing a lot there. During your first New York visit, you went to the flagship Burberry store on Fifth Avenue.

At the time, it was in a temporary space on Fifth Avenue.

Okay, okay.

Yep.

And you were talking about, certainly, making sure there are enough items on the floor. What was it missing when you walked in?

Well, at the time, you know, we had moved to this very minimalist aesthetic that we were calling that modern British luxury, but in a sense, that very minimalist cold aesthetic sort of took out the richness of the experience. And if you go back into our heritage, you see that the Burberry stores, you know, were really beautiful emporiums that showcased the product front and center. And so I was asking a lot of questions, and I was in the stock room with the team, and I noticed-

Did they expect the CEO to go back to the stockroom? I know we've talked at CEO council before, sometimes we have CEOs that are absolutely in there. Other times, the employees are just completely freaked out.

You know, you'd have to ask them. I had already been on the payroll for about three weeks, so I think they heard from their colleagues in other regions that I would probably wanna spend a lot of time in the stock room. And so, you know, I was puzzled that we didn't have hats or umbrellas on the floor, because, again, you know, rain and the weather is a big part of our heritage.

Sure.

And so I was going through the stockroom and I actually saw a great selection of hats and umbrellas. And so I suggested that we put some out on the floor, and, you know, they're taking notes, and, you know, they said, "Oh yeah, well, we'll talk to our visual team," and I said, "Well, why don't we just do it now?" And that, I think they were a little bit surprised at that.

You didn't start walking out with umbrellas, did you?

Maybe not. I don't think it was on camera, So yeah.

Okay.

In any case, I encouraged them to, you know, test and learn in real time. And so then they brought a few of them out and we continued on the store tour, and, you know, it was several floors, the store, and by the time we came back downstairs, it had started raining on Fifth Avenue and-

You can't make this up. This is, like, not a movie set?

And I swear I didn't pay the people outside to come in and ask for umbrellas and hats, and anyway, it was just one anecdote, but it was a fun moment. And, you know, if you visit our stores today, you'll see scarves on the floor, you'll see a much more robust visual merchandising, and our customers have really responded to that.

And if you don't see that, you know to get in touch with Josh, right, everybody? So I wanna pivot to China a little bit.

Yeah.

It's the largest, Greater China is the largest market for Burberry.

It's our largest retail market.

Retail market, okay.

Yes.

And in the fourth quarter, I think you guys had 10% growth there at a time where a lot

We did.

Of your peers are not or pulling back drastically. Can you just unpack what that market looks like for Burberry right now and how that growth is happening?

Yeah, China has historically been a very important market for Burberry. We were one of the first luxury brands to enter Greater China in the mid-'90s, And I would say that successive management teams have done a terrific job of connecting with the Chinese consumer. More recently in this past year, we been doing a lot of localization of our messaging, and getting this balance between big global tent pole marketing moments like our recent portrait of an icon campaign celebrating our heritage trenches, and that campaign had talent from all over the world, 25 global celebrities from different walks of life, including Chinese talent, so we balance those global moments with localized activity as well. And so for, you know, several years, we've been doing dedicated Lunar New Year campaigns, and this year, we thought, you know, what if we take the spirit of that localization and we don't just confine it to the regional holiday moment, the Chinese holiday moments, but also do that at other times? So just this week, we're launching the first in a series of documentary films that are made in partnership with China National Geography, and these feature authentic Chinese talents from different walks of life, and they're set in either, you know, beautiful outdoor sites or historic city sites. And so, you know, it's great for Burberry, because, you know, we have a history of both town and country, this country here in London or in the UK, but to be able to translate that and also appreciate the heritage in China, that balance is really resonating with the consumer there.

You mentioned the localization, and I know there's been this new reality, a rise of more, like, domestic, high-quality, made-in-China luxury brands. How do you compete with those? Is it doing, you know, campaigns like that to try to get even more local?

Well, I mean, you know, we are really proud of our presence and our partnership with the local Chinese market, and so, you know, more creativity, more appreciation for providence, and heritage, and authenticity in the product is great for us. And, you know, seeing the way that the Chinese market has evolved, you know, I started going to to China in the mid-'90s, and to see the way that the customer's appreciation for both international product but also the quality and execution of the domestic product is really exciting, and it's making an even more exciting marketplace. You mentioned Gen Z growth, and the other thing that's really interesting-

The consumer everybody wants. I know that's the case for a lot of the CEOs here.

You know, during our transformation in the last year and a half, we have seen more growth from the Gen Z segment globally, but that's definitely led by China.

Mm.

and so it's always so much fun for me to go there and to learn from our teams and learn from the consumers.

What do they want? What do you hear from the Gen Z consumers in China that maybe is different than here in the UK or in the US? You're smiling so much, yeah.

No, no, I'm smiling because it goes back to the lesson that A$AP Rocky taught me, that we have the most opportunity where we have the most authenticity. So, you know, again, talking about scarves, the iconic Burberry scarf was number four on the list index. And the list index, for those of you who don't know, is a index that is done quarterly that tracks demand on a luxury fashion websites, and it sort of scrapes the internet for all sorts of cues, and it ranks brands and it ranks items. Burberry had been off the list for a few years. We got back in the Top 10 ranking during this past festive season, but the Burberry scarf was also on the list of items as the number four item. And many people, you know, look at the list index as a proxy for Gen Z interest.

Oh, interesting. How often are you getting updates on the list?

It comes out quarterly.

Okay, so you're ready when it comes out?

It comes out quarterly and, you know.

Do you have, like, your coffee cup and you're, like, sitting there?

It usually, you know, I'm scrolling, and there it pops up, and you know.

Right, it better pop up. It better pop up. So I wanna go from China just to geopolitics, more broadly. It's been such a big theme of this summit. As you can imagine, there's a lot of uncertainty, what it means for the different economies. Certainly, Burberry has a big consumer in the Middle East and in Europe, and the tourist flows, certainly, in the Middle East with the war have gone down dramatically. How do you handle that as CEO? What are you looking at?

Yeah, you know, the world is a dynamic place, so, yes.

I'll say.

And it's a dynamic place, and you know, the only constant is change. So, you know, when we started this year, I don't think, you know, we anticipated that this would happen.

You and others in the audience, I'd imagine.

Right, and you know, in terms of penetration, the Middle East is about 2% of our business, but it also occupies a pivotal role because of the way tourist flows go. And so, you know, there's been, you know, a little disruption because of that, but what we're seeing is we're also seeing a repatriation of some of that demand, and particularly within Asia. So, you know, people are traveling closer to home, and you're seeing places like Hong Kong and Singapore benefit from, you know, less tourist flows through the Middle East. You know, we're also seeing our India business thrive in a moment where, you know, that corridor of, you know, inbound customers coming through the Middle East has been, you know, temporarily impacted.

It's interesting to hear you say that, 'cause I know I've talked to a lot of the folks here and other CEOs where they went to the Middle East to find growth because they either pulled out of China or there was less growth in China. So it's interesting that it almost has a little bit of that opposite effect where there's more growth in Asia. I do wanna go back to one moment. You had mentioned just in terms of the transformation and different changes that you've been doing, Burberry has closed, I think it was about 21 stores?

Exactly, yeah.

This past year. How do you decide when a location has lost its luster, or when it's a temporary blip?

Yep, so we did close 21 stores. We also opened 12, so that was for a net of nine, nine stores. You know, a great example is in Brussels. So we had a store there that was oversized, dated. We hadn't touched it in a very long time, you know, and so we debated, you know, do we exit the market? And then we looked at the customer list, and we're like, you know, these customers, they're actually quite loyal to the store. We didn't want to invest in a full renovation. You know, the shopping district had moved a little since we opened, so we found another location which was smaller. We were able to open our most updated store concept with scarf bar right front and center, and it was-

Did A$AP Rocky travel out? Not as far as I know. I still don't know where he bought that. Well, I do know, he bought it in SoHo. He bought the scarf in SoHo, but as far as I know, he hasn't been to Brussels. In any case, the store is much more productive now.

Yeah.

And you know, as I said, our strategy for stores is around prominence, productivity, and profitability. And, you know, if you have time in London, you could visit our stores on Sloane Street, on Bond Street, on Regent Street. You know, we have some of the best locations in the world, and now, you know, we're making sure, also, that we have the productivity and profitability as well.

What about a store where a smaller location just might not work? How do you decide where it just, you know, is it looking at the data, the consumer base? How do you decide where it's just kind of time to call it?

Yeah, I mean, there are markets, there are certainly markets like that, and you know, luxury brands tend to like to be alongside their peers, and, you know, in general, you don't wanna be the last one left on the street. So certainly, in some markets, you've seen that with, you know, some shopping malls that, you know, they may have been the place,

Yeah.

You know, 15 years ago, and then one tenant leaves, and two tenants leave, and you never want to be the last one at the party.

Yes.

And, you know, what's great today is, you know, seeing the integration of the way the consumer shops, because, you know, for many years we talked about, you know, the digital customer and physical customer, and now, they're really the same. You know, everyone's lives are-

That's just like the media. Just how you started off on that. We are one and the same. I have one-

Yeah, there are probably a lot of parallels.

I have one last quick question for you. Are you a car coat guy, or a trench guy, or all of the above?

Oh, well, it depends on the day of the week. Today, I'm wearing our Camden Car Coat.

Okay, and for those that don't know, what is that?

A car coat is sort of what it sounds like. It was designed in the early days of automotive, and it was a coat that you could easily put on in the car.

And then hop right in and go.

And hop right in and go.

I love that, well, our time is running to a close, so Josh, thank you so much.

Really appreciate it.

My pleasure, absolutely.