BURBERRY ANNOUNCES BRAND RESTRUCTURING AND NEW PRODUCTION FACILITY

Burberry has announced plans to unify its Prorsum, London and Brit collections under a new single ‘Burberry’ label. The transition will be phased over the course of next year, with the brand becoming one fully unified label by the end of 2016. The new label also emphasizes Burberry’s British design heritage, noting that all the products are designed and developed in London, England.

“The behavior of the luxury customer is evolving, their style is more fluid and this is reflected in the way they shop,” said Burberry CEO Christopher Bailey in a statement. “The changes we are making allow us to serve this new behavior more intuitively. By unifying our three lines under one label we can also offer a much more consistent experience of Burberry’s collections.”

This news comes on the same night of the announcement of Burberry’s plans to develop a new state-of-the-art manufacturing and weaving facility in South Bank, Leeds. The proposal represents an initial investment of over £50 million (approximately $77 million) in the heart of Yorkshire and is expected to provide permanent employment for more than a thousand people. Work on the new site is due to begin in 2016 with a current completion date of 2019.

“I am delighted to announce that the next chapter of Burberry’s manufacturing story will be right here in Yorkshire,” said Bailey. “Burberry is a proudly British brand and we are so excited that our plan for a new site in South Bank, Leeds, means that we will continue to produce our most iconic product – the trench coat – in this wonderful part of the country for many years to come.”