Burberry Group plc

Is Burberry publicly traded?

Yes. Burberry Group plc trades on the London Stock Exchange under ticker BRBY. It returned to the FTSE 100 index in September 2025.

Who owns Burberry?

Burberry is an independent public company with shares held by institutional and public investors. No controlling shareholder exists, making it genuinely independent among major luxury brands.

When was Burberry founded?

Thomas Burberry founded the company in 1856 in Basingstoke, Hampshire. The business is 170 years old as of 2026.

Who is the CEO of Burberry?

Joshua Schulman has served as chief executive officer since July 2024. Daniel Lee is chief creative officer and Gerry Murphy is chairman.

What is Burberry's annual revenue?

For fiscal 2025/26, ended March 28, 2026, Burberry reported revenue of £2.42 billion with adjusted operating profit of £160 million.

Where is Burberry headquartered?

The company is headquartered at Horseferry House in Westminster, London, with signature manufacturing at Castleford in Yorkshire and mills in Scotland.

What is the Burberry Forward strategy?

Burberry Forward is CEO Joshua Schulman's November 2024 turnaround plan refocusing the brand on its heritage strengths: outerwear, scarves, and British identity, after years of fashion-led drift under prior leadership.

Thomas Burberry founded the business in 1856 in Basingstoke, Hampshire, as an outdoor outfitter. His 1879 invention of gabardine, a breathable weatherproof fabric, established the technical reputation that clothed explorers including Ernest Shackleton and built the company's identity around functional British outerwear.

The trench coat, developed for British officers in the First World War, became the company's signature, and the check lining added in the 1920s provided the visual identity that still drives the brand. Royal Warrants and mid-century growth established Burberry as a British establishment name.

The modern corporation formed in the late 20th century as the company expanded beyond outerwear. Under Rose Marie Bravo and then Angela Ahrendts, Burberry repositioned as a global luxury brand, demerging from GUS plc to list independently on the London Stock Exchange in 2002. Creative directors Christopher Bailey and later Riccardo Tisci pushed the brand toward fashion and away from its outerwear roots.

The 2020s brought turbulence: pandemic-driven Chinese demand collapse, Tisci's stalled elevation strategy, and leadership churn with three CEOs in eight years. Joshua Schulman's July 2024 appointment and the November 2024 Burberry Forward strategy refocused on heritage, outerwear, and scarves. Fiscal 2025/26 showed the pivot working: comparable sales returned to positive growth and adjusted operating profit recovered to £160 million from £26 million.

Burberry has committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 under science-based targets covering Scope 1, 2, and 3, and publishes an annual sustainability basis of reporting with EY limited assurance.

The company is a signatory to the Fashion Pact, eliminated real fur in 2018, and reports progress on responsible cashmere and leather sourcing. Its carbon neutrality commitment covers its own operations.

The 2018 revelation that it destroyed unsold stock to protect exclusivity became a landmark luxury-industry controversy; the company ended the practice and shifted to recycling and donation, turning a reputational crisis into a policy change that influenced industry norms.

• Royal Warrants: Burberry holds Royal Warrants as an outfitter to the British Royal Household, a recognition maintained for decades.
• FTSE 100 Return: The September 2025 restoration to the FTSE 100 index reflected recovering market value under the Forward strategy.
• Brand Rankings: Consistent placement in Interbrand and Brand Finance top luxury brand rankings globally.
• ESG Ratings: Strong relative ESG ratings from MSCI and CDP compared with luxury peers, reflecting disclosure practices.

The 2018 stock-destruction disclosure, revealing roughly £28 million of unsold product burned in a year, remains the company's most damaging modern controversy, prompting public backlash and a permanent policy change.

The 2021 Xinjiang cotton episode hit the brand hard: joining Better Cotton Initiative statements on forced labor triggered Chinese state-media boycotts and a period of weak China sales from which it has since recovered.

Leadership instability itself drew scrutiny: three CEOs since 2017 and multiple creative director changes signaled strategic whiplash that investors cited through the share-price decline of 2023 and early 2024. The Forward strategy and FTSE 100 return have stabilized the narrative.