Burberry ensured full payment to employees even during the crisis

Many brands based out of UK were seen to pay their employees 80% of their salary by utilizing the government’s furlough scheme. British luxury brand Burberry continued to pay their employees even if they could not fulfill their role due to the lockdown. They did not rely on government support.

Burberry forecasted their quarterly sales figure would go down by 30% due to the pandemic, but they continued to pay their employees even when their shares went down by 2.6% and their losses were at 41%.  To tackle this they reduced their spending on non-essential areas and the directors voluntarily took a pay cut of 20% from April to June. This 20% was donated to a charity fund.

Burberry did set a great example for other luxury brands by turning their trench coat factory in Castleford into making gowns for healthcare workers. They utilized their supply chain to source surgical masks, they also donated 100000 pieces of PPEs.