Superdry chairman set to stand down by year end

Superdry charman Peter Bamford has reportedly indicated that he will step down by the end of the year, having served the maximum of nine years allowable by plc corporate governance guidelines.

Bamford's expected department will place the spotlight further on CEO Euan Sutherland who has been under fire by Superdry founders, Julian Dunkerton and James Holder, for his strategy, The Sunday Times has reported.

Dunkerton is currently seeking to be reinstated to the business at a senior level, having stood down in March of last year. Since the autumn, after faltering profits and a slump in its share price, Dunkerton began his campaign making various media appearances and lobbying shareholders.

Just before Christmas the brand revealed that underlying profit before tax had fallen 49% to £12.9m in the 26 weeks to 27 October and that it expected profits in the current financial year to be somewhere between £55m and £70m. Analysts had predicted around £84m.

Sutherland has argued that his new strategy of reducing product lines and introducing kidswear will take time to bear fruit. Last month highly respected former Nike executive Phil Dickinson was appointed as creative director to head up design and innovation, a move that could have been designed to see off Dunkerton who had previously headed up product development.

Bamford has been steadfast in his support of Sutherland who took over from Dunkerton as CEO in 2014, while Dunkerton moved to a product-focused role. The chairman has argued that Dunketon's thinking, which involves increasing, rather than decreasing, is product lines, had not sufficiently evolved with the needs of the global business.

It has been reported that Dunkerton is seeking to force an extraordinary meeting of shareholders imminently to seek to have his bid to return ratified.