Superdry chief Julian Dunkerton in share buying spree

Superdry chief executive Julian Dunkerton shored up his stake in the company he co-founded in 2003 by spending more than £1.5m on shares in a series of transactions this week.

On 22 September Dunkerton purchased 846,833 ordinary shares priced at £1.36 totalling £1.15m. The next day he purchased a further 154,809 shares at £1.38, totalling £214,431 and added to that with another purchase, valued at £207,447 yesterday (25 September). He now owns a circa 20% stake.

The move followed the announcement of the company's results for the 52 weeks to 25 April in which it posted a statutory loss before tax of £166.9m, up from £89.3m in 2019 as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Revenues were down 19% £704.4m.

Announcing the results Dunkerton said that while the business had been hit hard by forced store closures due to lockdown, he had been encouraged by its digital performance with e-commerce sales having doubled year-on-year in the first quarter of FY21. He also commented that the business had improve full-price sell-through.

“We are delivering on the reset of the business, despite the impacts of the pandemic. This has included re-invigorating the store design and layout, preparing for a relaunch of our website, and significantly increasing the number of options available both in store and online," Dunkerton said.

Following the announcement of the results the company's broker Liberum said the results were "as good as could be expected considering the Covid-19 impact" and re-iterated its "buy" status.

Chairman Peter Williams also purchased 50,000 in two transactions yesterday totalling more than £70,000

Shares closed up 1.18% at 145.7p on Friday.