Mulberry's Latest Report Card

When we met Mulberry's creative director Johnny Coca ahead of his second ready-to-wear show for the house in September, he was tentative to talk too soon when it came to the financial success of his tenure, despite clocking up industry-wide praise for his aesthetic direction. Now, however, first half results are in, and he will be pleased to hear that revenues climbed 9.9 per cent to £74.5 million following his debut.

The company is marking up a loss in the six months leading up to September "to investment costs and currency headwinds after the pound lost ground against the euro and dollar in the wake of the Brexit referendum", reports WWD, but Thierry Andretta, the brand's CEO, said that trading in the 10 weeks ending December 3, once again showed positive signs of growth.

Coca's first financial report card bodes well for the former Céline designer, who was brought on board in 2015 after a challenging period for the brand that saw it without a creative director since 2013. Andretta was brought on board shortly after Coca, replacing Bruno Guillon (who departed suddenly in March 2014), in a strategic move that aimed to create more cohesion between the business and creative sides of the brand.

“To have success it’s not only one person, it’s done by a team. I need to be close to the people that work for me and I need to know that they are okay. If there is a problem, I say to Thierry, ‘Can we solve it? Because it’s not cool, and I don’t like it when people are sad," Coca explained to us in September. "Thierry is someone I can talk to. Each week we have a dinner so we can expose every issue and find a solution. It’s like when you are family, or married, or whatever, it’s nice to have a dinner somewhere nice and a moment to reposition. We are very close and it’s really good to be able to make quick discussions. Not to be scary, just to be honest and talk."