The Time Has Come For Transformation

It is now just a matter of weeks until the start of Cop 27 when the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt will play host the Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).

The textile and leather industry represents 2.1 billion tons of global greenhouse gas (a significant 4%) and is cited as one of most polluting industries.

As part of the COP24 in Katowice, Poland, 2018 the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action was formed as an alliance to work together in achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. This was renewed at COP26 in Glasgow, UK in 2021 with stakeholders from the world of fashion working to effectively tackle the global challenge of climate change.

British luxury leather goods brand Mulberry is a signatory of the charter and has been keen to develop its sustainability agenda transforming the business to a net-zero, regenerative and circular business model.

Thierry Andretta (TA) a former Executive Chairman/CEO at brands including Lanvin, Moschino, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, Balenciaga, LVMH Fashion Group and Céline before being appointed Chief Executive of the Mulberry Group in 2015.

He is respected as a leader with a proven track in omni-channel, international expansion and joins me for a conversation about his future plans and hopes for Mulberry.

KH: We are in unusual times. How is the ‘handbag economy’ holding up post-pandemic and in the middle of the cost-of-living crisis?

TA: In these unprecedented times, it’s more important than ever that the customer knows they are buying something which is durable. At Mulberry, the philosophy of ‘Made to Last’ has been at the very heart of our business from the beginning. Our company was founded on a passion for making things well and making things that could be passed on to the next generation; this can still be seen in the way that we source, manufacture, repair and pass on our products today.

We are as passionate today as we were on day one about extending the life of every Mulberry product through repair, renewal, and repurposing.

Our Lifetime Service Centre Team at The Rookery, one of our Somerset factories where we still make over 50% of our bags, are masters of restoration, breathing new life into more than 10,000 bags every year, with leather and hardware archives going back over 35 years.

We see the appeal of our timeless designs in the way our products are handed down from generation to generation, and it is one of the main reasons we launched our circular economy programme, the Mulberry Exchange, in 2020. The Mulberry Exchange is an area of the business which is rapidly growing, and we expect this to remain a key element in driving future growth.

KH: How much interest is coming through to Mulberry from consumers on sustainability and environmentally positive initiatives and products?

TA: To be a business that is relevant today, you must have a clear vision and purpose driven by a commitment to a sustainable future. Our first 100% sustainable leather bag, the Portobello, which launched in 2019, was a great first marker of our customer’s response, selling out online in 48 hours. The following year, we went on to launch the Mulberry Exchange in store, which we then extended to Mulberry.com and Vestiaire Collective in April 2021. The demand we have seen for the Mulberry Exchange has continued to show the customer’s support of our sustainability initiatives, with our pre-loved offering becoming our fastest growing channel.

Earlier this year, we launched our first carbon neutral collection from field to shop floor, Lily Zero, and this collection continues to be a best seller.

A key element of our strategy is that we don’t believe in charging a premium to customers just because we are providing more sustainable options for them, and keep the pricing strategy consistent across all ranges, as well as offering a single global price.

While we are happy to be seeing such strong interest from our customers in support of our sustainable initiatives, we also recognise that as a brand we need to be leading the discussion, and we will continue to ask difficult questions to find more sustainable solutions.

KH: You are running an impressive project when it comes to the re-commerce of Mulberry goods – how will you continue with this initiative?

TA: I am very proud that Mulberry was one of the first brands to launch its own circular economy programme, The Mulberry Exchange, in 2020. The Mulberry Exchange is a suite of services; inviting customers to have their Mulberry bags authenticated and expertly restored, with the opportunity to trade in their existing bag for credit towards either a new purchase, or a pre-loved style, ensuring that each and every Mulberry bag can have many lives. This initiative has become a cornerstone of our business and is further proof of our customer’s love of Mulberry icons past and present, and their trust in the longevity of the brand and our product.

The exchange continues to go from strength to strength. With the current demand for pre-loved bags, we are looking to double the number of units being bought back by Mulberry into our business to fulfil this demand for re-sale. We also intend to further grow the programme globally over the next year.

Further enriching our circular approach, this year we announced the launch of our Digital ID, powered by EON, giving customers direct access to the lifecycle of their pre-loved bag. From Autumn 2022, bags entering the Mulberry Exchange will be fitted with Digital IDs.

KH: What brand partnerships are you looking into? How much do you see this as part of Mulberry’s future strategy?

TA: Mulberry has a history of collaborations spanning decades. The brand was founded in 1971, in a time of unrestrained creativity and dynamic collaboration that allowed our brand and many others to flourish. Today, we believe that same collective spirit and power of creative collaboration is important in unlocking the full potential of our British creative community and will continue to be a key part of the brand DNA. Last year, as part of our 50^th anniversary celebrations, we embarked on a series of collaborations with three of the most visionary designers of their generation, Priya Ahluwalia, Richard Malone and Nicholas Daley.

At the core of these three collaborations was a shared sustainability ethos. The collaborators re-imagined Mulberry’s iconic designs, bringing their unique design language into dialogue with the values we have always cherished at Mulberry – responsible innovation, progressive British craftsmanship, made-to-last design, and community spirit. They were a meeting of creativity and craft expertise, which reached new audiences, and supported powerful and unique creative voices.

These recent collaborations brought to life the same philosophy as the collaborations which have been an important part of our history, with brands and designers ranging from AppleAAPL
, to Kim Jones, and Acne.

KH: What do you believe will be Mulberry’s legacy at this momentous time of change in the industry?

The philosophy of Made to Last has always been at the very heart of Mulberry since we were founded in 1971. Our world class Lifetime Service Centre has been repairing bags for over thirty years, restoring over 10,000 bags a year, our circular economy programme, The Mulberry Exchange, was founded in 2020, and we have a longstanding commitment to traceability throughout our supply chain.

Proud as we were of the responsible business we’d built, when we started to consider how to mark our 50th anniversary last year, we naturally reflected on our past 50 years and also looked to what our future legacy would be. It felt right to look at how we could extend the programs we had in place, and how we could build a business that was truly made to last for the next fifty years and beyond, and this was the basis of the Made to Last manifesto which we launched last year.

The manifesto is a commitment to transform the business to a regenerative and circular model, encompassing the entire supply chain from field to shop floor by 2030, it also includes our 2035 Net Zero commitment.

Our mission is to be the leading responsible British luxury lifestyle brand and a pioneer in sustainability.

As the largest manufacturer of luxury leather goods in the UK, with over 50% of our bags made here, we have always been at the forefront of improving practices in the leather industry, taking an active role in a number of multi-stakeholder initiatives. We recognise the importance of cross-industry collaboration as we continue to develop more sustainable solutions. An example of this was the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) leather blockchain pilot that we joined in April last year, which worked on improving traceability throughout the leather value chain.

We also partnered with EON to launch our Digital ID at the Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen this June, and are working with the Science Based Target Initiative to develop our reduction pathway to achieve our Net Zero ambitions.

We believe the time has come for transformation, looking beyond impact reduction to solutions that have the potential to create positive change, from the ground up.