Dunkerton wins approval (just) to rejoin Superdry board

Superdry co-founder Julian Dunkerton looks set to rejoin the company’s board, triggering a possible wave of resignations among the current management.

Dunkerton’s election scraped over the line with 50.75% of the total proxy votes cast ahead of a shareholder meeting.

Peter Williams, the former chairman of Boohoo, is also set to become a director after he gained 50.74% approval.

Final votes will be cast at a meeting on Tuesday, though it is thought unlikely to swing the result.

The current board of Superdry has previously threatened to resign en masse if Dunkerton returned to the company.

He has been a vocal critic of Superdry’s management for several months, claiming that the strategy has not been working.

He said in a circular last month that the retailer’s management, led by chief executive Euan Sutherland, has presided over a “catastrophic decline”.

“The company is in such a weakened state that it has floundered on one season’s collection, but the real issues facing the business are far more fundamental, strategically and operationally.”

He is acting with co-founder James Holder and together the pair own 29% of Superdry.

In the build-up to Tuesday’s vote, investor advisory firms PIRC and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) both recommended shareholders vote against the shake-up.

But big City investors including Investec Asset Management, Schroders and Spanish bank BBVA were expected to vote in favour of Dunkerton.