Burberry has appointed Moncler‘s Chief Chinese Business Officer, Stella King, as an independent Non-Executive Director member of the Nomination Committee as rumours that the rival outerwear business is considering a takeover bid swirl.
King’s new position will be effective from 1 April 2025.
She is currently at Moncler, which she joined thirteen years ago in 2011 as President, of Asia Pacific. In January 2022 she moved to the role of Chief Chinese Business Officer, which she will step down from on 31 December 2024.
Prior to working at Moncler, Stella King served as President of Asia Pacific for Sergio Rossi and also held a slew of managerial positions at Lane Crawford in Mainland China.
Burberry recently dropped out of the FTSE 100, with its shares falling to their lowest level since 2009 earlier this year. However, last month, its share prices were boosted by more than 7% after reports surfaced that the British outerwear brand’s Italian rival Moncler may be considering a takeover bid.
The surge in share prices came after the trade journal, Miss Tweed, reported that Moncler is bidding for Burberry, which has recently felt the pressures of the luxury market’s slump. However, Moncler told TheIndustry.fashion: “Moncler does not comment on unsubstantiated rumours”.
It said there is “no substance to this story” as “this is simply a rumour”.
With King’s appointment, Burberry has also announced Fabiola Arredondo and Antoine de Saint-Affrique will retire from its board as Non-Executive Directors in July 2025.
Gerry Murphy, Burberry Chair, said: “Stella has impressive and deep understanding of the luxury market and consumers in the Asia Pacific region. Her insight and expertise will be a great asset to Burberry and we are delighted that she has accepted our invitation to join the Burberry Board.”
“On behalf of the Board, I want to thank Fabiola and Antoine for their service to the Company. The Board has benefitted greatly from their extensive knowledge and experience throughout their tenures and I wish them both every success in their future endeavours.”
This isn’t the only recent appointment the struggling British fashion house has made in recent months to revamp sales.
The fashion house swung to a £53 million loss for the half-year ending 28 September, down from £223 million profit for the same period last year. Revenue fell 20% year on year to £1.09 billion, as the London-listed firm also suspended its dividend payments to shareholders.
In July, Burberry replaced its CEO Jonathan Akeroyd with Joshua Schulman. New CEO, Schulman has worked in the fashion industry for more than 33 years, including at least 24 in executive positions, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was most recently CEO of Michael Kors and has previous experience at Coach and Jimmy Choo.
Last month, the company also revealed that Paul Price would be returning to the brand as Chief Product Merchandising and Planning Officer. Price had been Chief Merchandising Officer from 2007-2017 at Burberry before leaving to head up Topshop, then part of Arcadia, before heading to the US to lead James Perse.
