Superdry has appointed a new creative chief as the fashion brand looks to arrest falling profits and see off a boardroom assault from co-founder Julian Dunkerton.
The company said on Monday that it has enlisted the services of former Nike executive Phil Dickinson to work as creative director.
The industry veteran has 28 years of experience in the sector, including leading the successful turnaround of the Umbro brand.
At Nike, he spearheaded the US giant's 2007 push into football, before being promoted to head of sportswear in 2010.
However, Mr Dickinson joins the firm at a sensitive time, with a boardroom bust-up between the current management and Superdry co-founder Mr Dunkerton in full swing.
Mr Dunkerton is attempting to stage a comeback at the company after quitting in March last year.
He still owns a sizeable stake in Superdry and has launched withering criticisms of current management - led by chief executive Euan Sutherland - amid a string of profit warnings at the chain.
The businessman has pledged to call a shareholder meeting to vote on his reinstatement within a month.
Meanwhile, Mr Dickinson will take up his new post on January 22.
His appointment comes after Superdry's chief product officer Brigitte Danielmeyer left her role before Christmas for personal reasons.
Mr Sutherland said: "Phil is one of the best creatives working in our industry and we are delighted that he is joining Superdry.
"Last summer we kick-started an 18-month product diversification and innovation programme and Phil will bring extra pace, focus and energy to that work."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here