Burberry’s £2,000 Cotswolds handbag hits ‘a sweet spot’ with Americans

The luxury fashion brand Burberry has said a new £2,000 handbag named after the Cotswolds has bolstered sales, as the English region becomes increasingly popular with wealthy Americans.Joshua Schulman, the company’s chief executive, said its tote bags – which mix leather and the signature Burberry check – had helped drive its best performance in bag sales since 2023.He said: “During Mother’s Day in North America the customer has been responding to our vintage check introductions and Cotswolds lines. We’ve hit a sweet spot on price and value for money in a luxury context.”The Cotswolds region, which runs through counties including Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, has become popular with wealthy Americans, and has been referred to as the “Hamptons of England”.Schulman said Burberry had phased out its Knight bag, which was selling at more than £2,400 for certain versions, and last year had brought in the Cotswolds bags, which are priced at “around and under £2,000”.Schulman – who joined Burberry in 2024 – said the shift marked a change from a focus under the brand’s previous management on “all attention on bags and having those at pinnacle price points without recognisable brand signatures”. He added: “That strategy didn’t work.”Burberry on Thursday reported a return to full-year profits amid rising sales in the US and China.The company made pre-tax profits of £49m in the year to 28 March, compared with a loss of £66m in the previous 12 months, as it cut £80m of annual costs, trimmed store numbers and won back Chinese and North American shoppers.Sales were flat year on year, once the impact of exchange rates was taken into account, at £2.4bn.“I am more optimistic than ever that Burberry can meet the £3bn [sales] milestone and go beyond that,” Schulman said.He added that a revival had been led by core categories of scarves and outerwear but sales of ready-to-wear items had now “taken off”, bag sales were beginning to improve and the brand had “strong attraction” among younger shoppers.Global sales were knocked back by poor performance in Europe and the Middle East, where travel was affected by the Iran war. The Middle East accounts for 2% of Burberry’s global sales.Shares in Burberry fell 5% on Thursday amid fears about the conflict’s impact.However, Kate Ferry, the finance director of Burberry, said the company was confident it could meet the consensus of analysts’ profit expectations for the year ahead, despite the problems in the Middle East.“We have great momentum starting the year and we are confident we are going to make progress on sales growth and margin,” she said.