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LONDON, United Kingdom — Burberry Group Plc's plan to build a new £50 million ($66.9 million) weaving facility in the UK is on hold as the luxury-goods maker assesses the impact of the country's Brexit vote.
The company, which shook up its top management ranks earlier this week, still plans to go ahead with the plant in Leeds, England, though is being “very cautious” on its investment plans, chairman John Peace said after Thursday’s annual meeting in London.
“We’ve certainly put it on hold for the moment, but that might be for a very short period of time,” Peace told reporters. “It depends on how events unfold. It’s not in terms of reversing our decision to do it or not. But it’s the speed at which we invest.”
Burberry announced in November that it planned to build the facility, which will employ 1,000 people and be dedicated to production of its famed trenchcoats. Work was due to start this year and be complete by 2019.
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The Brexit vote has led to delays on a decision on the expansion of London’s Heathrow airport and on the government’s sale of its stake in Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. Philip Hammond, the UK’s newly appointed chancellor of the exchequer, said on Thursday’s that the decision to leave the European Union had “rattled confidence” and that he would take “whatever measures” needed to shore up the British economy.
“Every day is a lifetime at the moment in terms of news flow,” Burberry’s Peace said.
By John Ainger; editors: Eric Pfanner, Paul Jarvis and Matthew Boyle.
