Latest / Family Business Stories with Fexingo: Succession, Legacy, and Multi-Generational Companies / How the Burberry Family Built a Global Luxury Legacy
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I want to talk about a coat. Luna: A specific coat, or just the concept of a coat? Lucas: A specific coat. The Burberry trench coat. Today, it's one of the most copied garments in fashion — but the story of how that coat, and the company behind it, survived and thrived across five generations of family involvement is a masterclass in balancing innovation with tradition. Luna: Burberry is a family business? I think of it as a publicly traded luxury house now, like LVMH or Kering. Lucas: Right, it's been public since 2002. But the founding family — the Burberrys — ran it for nearly a century and a half. And even after they stepped back from day-to-day control, the values they embedded are still the backbone of the brand. That's the thread I want to pull today. Luna: So where do we start? With the founder? Lucas: With Thomas Burberry. He was a 21-year-old draper's apprentice in Basingstoke, England, when he opened his own outfitter shop in 1856. But his big breakthrough came in 1879, when he invented a fabric called gabardine. Luna: Gabardine — that's the waterproof weave, right? I've heard it described as the original performance fabric. Lucas: Exactly. Prior to gabardine, waterproof coats were heavy rubber Mackintoshes — they were effective but suffocating. Thomas Burberry's innovation was to use a tightly twisted cotton yarn, then weave it so the fabric itself was water-resistant but breathable. He patented the process in 1888. And that one fabric became the foundation of the entire company. Luna: And it's still used today, right? The trench coat is still made from gabardine. Lucas: It is. And that continuity is the first lesson in family business: if you have a genuine product innovation that solves a real problem, protect it. Thomas Burberry didn't just patent gabardine — he built the company's identity around it. By the 1890s, Burberry was the go-to outfitter for explorers and military officers. Luna: I've read that Roald Amundsen wore Burberry on his expedition to the South Pole. Lucas: Yes, in 1911. And then during World War One, the British War Office commissioned Burberry to produce a modified version of its officer's coat — the 'trench coat' we know today. That coat was worn by hundreds of thousands of soldiers. So by the 1920s, Burberry had both a technological reputation and a cultural one. Luna: What happened when Thomas passed the business on? Lucas: Thomas managed the company until his death in 1926. His sons took over — and that's where you see the first test of family continuity. The sons understood that the brand's strength was tied to craftsmanship and quality. They kept manufacturing in England, they kept the gabardine process secret, and they expanded steadily but carefully through the mid-20th century. Luna: But then the 1990s happened. I remember Burberry being a bit... tired. It had a reputation as something your grandfather wore. Lucas: You're right. By the 1990s, Burberry had lost its edge. The family was still involved — the great-grandsons were on the board — but the brand had been licensed too broadly. You could buy Burberry-branded dog collars and cheap perfume. The iconic check pattern was everywhere, which meant it was nowhere special. Luna: How did they turn it around without losing the family heritage? Lucas: That's the critical question. In 1997, the family and the board brought in a new CEO, Rose Marie Bravo. But what's less known is that the family made a specific demand: protect the trench coat. They insisted that no matter what changes were made — new designers, new logos, new marketing — the original trench coat had to remain in production, made in England, using the same gabardine. Luna: So they used the coat as an anchor. Lucas: Exactly. Bravo and her team reduced licenses from over 50 to around 20. They brought design in-house. And most importantly, they reinvested in the Castleford factory in Yorkshire, where the trench coats are still made today. That factory now produces about 50,000 coats a year. Each one takes three weeks from cutting to finishing. Luna: Three weeks per coat. That's not fast fashion. Lucas: No, and that's the point. The family understood that the trench coat wasn't just a product — it was a proof of concept for the brand's values. By preserving the factory and the craft, they gave the turnaround a tangible anchor. You can't fake a heritage claim if you're still making the original item in the original factory. Luna: When did the family finally exit day-to-day management? Lucas: The last Burberry family chairman stepped down in 2002, when the company listed on the London Stock Exchange. The family still held shares, but they ceded control to professional management. However, they negotiated a 'heritage clause' — the company is still required to produce the trench coat in England and maintain the gabardine patent. Luna: Is that clause binding? Can a public company be forced to keep a factory open? Lucas: It's not a legal contract, but it's a governance commitment that the board respects. And publicly, it's part of Burberry's brand promise. Every trench coat sold today has a label that says 'Made in England.' If they moved production to China, they'd lose that credibility. The family's insistence created a structural barrier against short-term cost-cutting. Luna: I wonder if that's replicable. Most family businesses can't write a clause to protect their legacy. Lucas: Right, but they can embed values in the company's operational DNA. The Burberry family didn't just write a clause — they spent 150 years building a culture where quality was non-negotiable. When the company went public, the professional managers who came in were inheriting a workforce and a supply chain that already believed in that. The culture protected the product longer than any legal document could. Luna: But the family no longer has a controlling stake. What if a future board decides the heritage clause is too expensive? Lucas: That's the risk. And it's a real tension in multi-generational businesses that go public. The Burberry family still holds about 2 percent of the shares. They're not in a position to veto a board decision. But what they do have is the power of narrative. The company knows that if it abandons the trench coat's heritage, it loses its brand identity. The family's role today is to be the guardian of that story. Luna: So the family becomes a kind of brand historian. Lucas: Exactly. And there's a concrete example. In 2018, Burberry announced it would stop burning unsold inventory — a controversial practice in the luxury industry. The family, quietly, had been pushing for that change for years. They saw it as inconsistent with the craftsmanship ethos Thomas Burberry established. When the company finally stopped, the family issued a brief statement of support. Luna: That's interesting — they're not making headlines, but they're shaping decisions behind the scenes. Lucas: That's the most effective long-term role for a founding family after ceding control: be the moral compass, not the daily operator. The Burberrys understood that their legitimacy came from the product, not from a board seat. As long as they stayed associated with craftsmanship, they had influence. Luna: What about the current generation? Are any Burberrys working in the business today? Lucas: The sixth generation has largely moved on. One of Thomas's great great grandsons, a photographer, has done some work for the brand. But the family is not involved in management. And that's okay — the company is now a 3.5 billion pound business. The family's legacy is in the product, not the payroll. Luna: So the lesson is: if you want your family business to last beyond your tenure, build something so distinctive that even strangers will fight to protect it. Lucas: That's beautifully put. Thomas Burberry couldn't have imagined his coat would be worn by soldiers in two world wars, by explorers at both poles, and by celebrities on red carpets. But he created a fabric that was genuinely better at solving a problem — staying dry — and he built a company around that fabric. The family's job was to never let go of that core. Luna: And the coat is still being made in Yorkshire, three weeks at a time. Lucas: Three weeks, same gabardine, same factory town. That's not just heritage marketing. That's the product of a family that understood that a business is only as durable as the thing it makes. The Burberry trench coat is the physical proof of a 170-year-old decision to value quality over speed. Luna: I'll never look at a trench coat the same way again. Lucas: Good. That's the whole point of this show — to see the family story inside the product.