Top 100: Superdry reveals just how close it came to administration

For business watchers the saga of Julian Dunkerton’s efforts to turn around the fortunes of Superdry is captivating, but just how close it came to the end for the firm can now be revealed.

Dear readers,

Welcome to your Friday edition of The Raikes Journal.

It’s been a busy week, what with another Food for Thought event, the business support and networking group helping bring together food and drink firms from the county, and then there was Wednesday’s successful return of the incredibly popular Believe in Gloucester Awards after five years away.

We have full reports on both of these events pending.

Today we offer up a closer inspection of the ongoing ‘must-watch’ business saga that is Junlian Dunkerton’s efforts to rescue and resurrect the famous global fashion house he created. Yes, we’re talking about Superdry.

New details have emerged which show the firm was within a hair’s breadth of administration until Dunkerton managed to raise an extra £10 million to give it some breathing space.

The figures in the article below might not appear anything to celebrate at first glance, but closer inspection suggests a new-found confidence and a business which now has a firm grasp and sense of direction.

In short, the drama is not over yet, but at least it appears to be a happy ending to this particular chapter.

Superdry’s turnover makes it part of our perpetual Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, which follows the fortunes of the county’s biggest firms by turnover and which we pool in our Reports & Deals channel, sponsored by Randall & Payne.

Have a great week,

Andrew Merrell (editor).

NB: Raikes publishes probably the best-read business-related email ‘newsletter’, pound for pound, in Gloucestershire.

If you have a story, an issue, a news item, a charity or an interview you want us to write about or investigate, challenge the powers that be on, then please email me: andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.

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Ed Slater urges everyone to support rugby league legend’s run from Gloucester to Bristol

Rugby League legend Kevin Sinfield will be part of a team running from Kingsholm Stadium to Bristol on Monday 2 December to raise funds for six MND (motor neurone disease) charities and the MND Association as part of a seven-day tour covering 50km a day. His visit is inspired by former Gloucester Rugby forward Ed Slater, who was diganosed with MND in 2022, former Gloucestershire cricketer and the county club’s current president, David ‘Syd’ Lawrence, and Bristol Rovers striker Marcus Stewart who are also battling MND. Sinfield found himself centre stage after supporting his close friend, former teammate and rugby league legend Rob Burrow, who died in June this year aged 41. Slater said: “Everyone should have a friend like Kevin Sinfield. What Kev has done for the MND community is incredible and I am sure the Gloucester public will come out in big numbers to cheer him on when he sets off from Kingsholm on 2nd December.” You can also catch Sinfield and his team when they stop for a 30 minute break at Highfield Garden Centre, Whitminster at 8.30am. Members of the public can sponsor the effort here or by texting Kevin10 to 70143 to donate £10. For more details of the entire route for the 2024 click here.

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Your briefing notes... 

👟👗🛍️ Superdry has laid out just how close it sailed to administration in a new detailed report just published. In the end the firm’s future hinged on some £10 million of equity raised by its founder, the Cheltenham businessman Julian Dunkerton. Judging by the report nerves appear to have settled and Dunkerton himself told Raikes he ‘had a handle’ on the firm he founded now and felt sure of its future. We take a closer look below in our main story.

🏆 If you were at the Believe in Gloucester awards staged by Gloucester BID (Business Improvement District) at the city’s Guildhall on Wednesday evening this week we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. If you weren’t, but want to read more about it, who won, what they thought about the awards return after five years, who sponsored what and why it was so warmly welcomed back, then please watch this space. We have a full report written up, but have had to delay due to issues out of our control.

📈 Cheltenham officially opened its Growth Hub this week, the business support centre based at the town’s new MX Centre, the unofficial cyber sector headquarters for the county beside Cheltenham Minster. It marks the end of a long wait for the town, finally giving its businesses a physical space in which to access the long-standing services and joining it to a network of similar spaces already in Gloucester, Cirencester, Stroud and the Forest of Dean.

👏 Next week will see the arrival of the biggest ever careers ever to be staged in Gloucestershire. Those clever and well-connected people at Circle2Success have got together with the group’s myriad of members to stage the mammoth event at Cheltenham Racecourse on Wednesday 27 November. Students from across the county are expected to take part in Educational Outreach Live, which is a chance to meet scores of businesses face to face and learn about job opportunities. Running alongside will be the cyber sector’s EmPowerCyber careers event. Find out more here.

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Law firm expands its services

County headquartered law firm, and one of the Founding Partners of The Raikes Journal, has officially expanded its range of services. It’s added HR (human resources) support to its arsenal of assistance services for all sizes of business. This is a formalising of the relationships it’s built with experts who have become its trusted partners. The new service was devised by Willan’s employment and business immigration team. Jenny Hawrot, the team’s head of employment and business immigration (and someone named a ‘next generation partner’ by national independent guide The Legal 500), said: “Willans HR can provide tailoired support for your business, whether that is with regard to grievances, disciplinary processes, internal investigations or strategic changes to help that business flourish, or indeed going through changes such as tupe transactions to redundancy consultations, Willans HR can help you with this. This enables you to focus on running your business.” Find out more click here.

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* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.

If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this community interest company too. In an era when local journalism is all but gone and websites covered in pop-ups and full of advertorials, lists and unedited press releases, we are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire, the series that follows the financial fortunes of our biggest firms by turnover. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable. Please do join us.

If you sign up now you can take advantage of our 30 per cent off offer - and become a member for a year for just £84, which works out at £7 a month or £1.62 a week! Or go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members, and overpay!

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Our to do list for the weekend…

Friday 22 November:

🏉 Gloucester rugby take on Exeter a Kingsholm tonight from 7.45.

⚽ Cheltenham Town FC play Tranmere Rovers FC at home at 7.45.

💃🏽Your chance to see Jacques Audiard’s stunning film Emilia Pérez on the big screen at The Roses Theatre in Tewkesury this evening from 8pm.

🎄Sudeley Castle stages its annual Spectacle of Light show in its grounds from this evening until 30 December. Advance adult - £22.50, advance child 3-15 - £12.60, advance family 2+2 - £59.40

Saturday 23 November:

🎻🎶 Stroud Symphony Orchestra Autumn Concert is due to take place tonight from 7.30pm at Holy Trinity Church, Stroud.

Sunday 24 November:

🎻🎶 Wycliffe Choral Society, a registered charity, is due to stage Haydn Nelson Mass & Rutter Requiem at Wycliffe College Chapel from 7pm. Tickets are £16.50.

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Superdry reveals just how close it came to administration 

For business watchers the saga of Julian Dunkerton’s efforts to turn around the fortunes of  Superdry is captivating like few other business stories, but just how close it came to the end for the firm can now be revealed.

By Andrew Merrell.

When this journalist met Julian Dunkerton recently the entrepreneur didn’t want to talk Superdry, but he did say with confidence that he felt he had a ‘good handle on the business now’. 

The Cheltenham-based businessman’s battle to resurrect the fortunes of the global multi-million pound fashion house has made for compelling viewing for those with comfortable ringside seats.  

It is a drama that began with the sales slump that followed his departure in 2018, the boardroom coup that reinstated him, the 11th hour victory to stabilise its finances and finally a delisting from the Stock Market earlier this year.  

What is now becoming clear is just how very, very serious it was for the fashion brand. 

“Without the implementation of those measures, and in particular the restructuring plan, it was the view of directors that the group, and other companies within the group, would have needed to enter into administration, or an equivalent insolvency process,” said chief financial officer Giles David.

It was, said David, only an additional £10 million from the ‘equity raise’ that “provided greater comfort” to the directors that the group had “sufficient liquidity headroom to implement its turnaround plan”. 

The details has been revealed in a more detailed than usual annual report, the first since the delisting of the business, and one which spells out the financial challenges and many other factors, while also sounding reassuringly confident. Rather like Dunkerton’s statement that started this article.