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Tag: Victoria’s Secret

  • Victoria’s Secret appoints new leaders for core brands

    Victoria’s Secret appoints new leaders for core brands

    Victoria’s Secret & Co has made several leadership changes as the company focuses on strengthening its core brands.

    The company said the move is part of its “Path to Potential” strategy, which aims to build momentum across its Victoria’s Secret, Pink and Adore Me banners.

    Anne Stephenson has been named brand president of the Victoria’s Secret brand, effective next month. She is currently the company’s chief merchandising officer and brings experience in product strategy, brand development and merchandising

    Meanwhile, Ali Dillon has been appointed president of Pink. Dillon previously held leadership roles in merchandising and brand development at several fashion retailers and most recently served as president of Alex Mill.

    Amy Kocourek took over as president of the beauty division in March. Before joining Victoria’s Secret, she was chief merchandising officer at jewellery and lifestyle brand Kendra Scott.

    All three brand presidents will report to CEO Hillary Super.

    In a separate appointment, fashion designer Adam Selman was named senior VP and executive creative director. He will report directly to Super until a new chief merchandising officer is named.

    “This is an exceptional team of product and creative leaders whose vision and operational expertise will drive new levels of growth, innovation and impact for our company,” said Super.

    “With their customer-centric approach, I’m confident they’ll help us unlock the full potential of our brands, capture the next generation of consumers and strengthen our market leadership.”

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  • Victoria’s Secret swings to net income despite lower sales

    Victoria’s Secret swings to net income despite lower sales

    Victoria’s Secret swung to a net income despite lower sales in the fiscal second quarter, which an analyst attributes to better inventory management discipline and efficient cost control.

    The lingerie and perfume brand’s net income was US$32.1 million, while net sales fell 0.7 percent year over year to $1.42 billion.

    North America store sales decreased 2.1 percent to $800 million, and direct sales slid 0.9 percent to $430.2 million. International sales climbed 6.4 percent to $187 million.

    “Some better discipline around inventory management and strong cost control have both helped to boost the bottom line,” said Neil Saunders, GlobalData MD.

    “The better financial health of the business means that when Hillary Super takes the reins as CEO in early September she will, at least, inherit a company that has been stabilized.”

    The company forecasts net sales to increase low-single digits in the fiscal third quarter from the year-ago period.

    “We are encouraged our North America business trends have continued to improve as we’ve moved through August and the start of the third quarter,” said Timothy Johnson, Victoria’s Secret interim CEO, and chief finance and administrative officer.

    “While we are optimistic about the positive signs we’re seeing in our business, we recognize the consumer environment remains challenging and our customer is pressured economically.”

    For the full fiscal year, the company expects net sales to be down by about 1 per cent.

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  • Victoria’s Secret launches a World Tour – its new ‘catwalk show’

    Victoria’s Secret launches a World Tour – its new ‘catwalk show’

    It was December 2018 when the last Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show aired on CBS. A year earlier, the show garnered a billion viewers worldwide, but its size and success had blinkered the company to both the cultural shifts being brought about by a born-online generation that demanded to see itself reflected in advertising and the upstart competitors who were building inclusion into their business plans. Rihanna’s debut Savage Fenty show in the fall of 2018 made Victoria’s Secret’s reliance on an impossibly narrow conception of beauty—all razzle-dazzle push-up bras, highly exercised abs, and angel wings, along with the occasional culturally appropriative headpiece or another accessory—seem out of touch. Then there was its owner’s entanglements with alleged sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. On an earnings call in November 2019, it was official: The Fashion Show was canceled.

    In the years since, the company has undertaken a sweeping, ambitious rebrand, removing the architects of the original Fashion Show; swapping the Angels for a VS Collective that includes Megan Rapinoe, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Paloma Elsesser; and expanding its size range and developing the kind of products it had long neglected to make—nursing bras and mastectomy bras, for instance—because they didn’t fit its male-driven definition of “sexy.” Leslie H. Wexner, the founder of Victoria’s Secret parent company L Brands, also stepped down as Chairman and CEO, and sold his majority stake. Today, Victoria’s Secret remains the leader in the U.S. for the intimates category and on a rolling 12 month basis the brand experienced slight growth in 2022 compared to 2021.

    Now, in its biggest and most visible move yet, the brand is reinventing its annual show, producing a feature-length documentary film set to premiere in September. Though it’s a fairly radical rethink, the company is billing it as every bit as spectacular as the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows of old—there might even be wings.

    “There’s no need to explain ourselves anymore,” said Raul Martinez, EVP, head creative director of Victoria’s Secret, who is spearheading the project. “We’ve evolved and we’ve moved on, but it’s not that we’re leaving anything behind. We’re touching both the storytelling, which is about our advocacy and celebrating female voices, but also that full-on, fashion entertainment experience, because that was quite iconic.”

    Dubbed “Victoria’s Secret World Tour,” the new show will bring together a cast of international women creators from four cities across the globe. The “VS 20” includes filmmakers, musicians, artists, and other creatives, with a quartet of fashion designers at its center. Using Victoria’s Secret resources, London’s Supriya Lele, Lagos’s Bubu Ogisi, Tokyo’s Jenny Fax, and Bogota’s Melissa Valdes will each produce collections, the behind-the-scenes makings of which will be captured in the doc. All four narratives will come together with a filmed fashion show featuring a fifth segment of Victoria’s Secret-designed pieces.

    Margot Bowman, the London-based director that’s been trailing Supriya Lele and her team, avoided the Victoria’s Secret Runway Show in her youth. “I didn’t aspire to that experience because I knew I was excluded from it,” she said. “I was an overweight kid. But I still remember the images; for better or worse they were iconic images, powerful images. And for me, I see this as an opportunity to create a new set of images that more people can find themselves in.”

    The company was the subject of a Matt Tyrnauer documentary Angels and Demons last year that investigated its former owner’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. And a book penned by former Business of Fashion journalists, Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unravelling of an American Retail Icon that is scheduled for an early 2024 release, seems poised to keep the brand’s problematic history in the news cycle. Then there’s the fact that new rivals have emerged as the company has been reimagining itself. Kim Kardashian launched Skims in 2019. It’s now valued at over $3 billion, and thanks to her influence it’s sparked a shapewear craze on the runways. Lizzo launched the rival brand Yitty last year with a tagline about “self-love and radical inner-confidence” that exemplifies how the lingerie industry is changing.

    When Victoria’s Secret announced on an earnings in March that it would be investing in a new version of its Fashion Show, the pop star took to Twitter: “This is a win for inclusivity for inclusivity’s sake,” she wrote. “But if brands start doing this only because they’ve received backlash, what happens when the ‘trends’ change again? Do the CEOs of these companies value true inclusivity? Or do they just value money?”

    Convincing people of Victoria’s Secret’s new agenda of female empowerment is where the VS20 comes in. Supriya Lele, who brings her Indian heritage to bear on her draped designs, sees synergies between her own brand and Victoria’s Secret. The VS Collective member Paloma Elsesser, whose voice can be heard in the teaser video released today, has walked Lele’s London runway. “That was one of the reasons why I felt that I can identify with some aspects of this now—previously maybe less so—but now I feel their language is becoming more and more modern,” she said. “And after meeting with the team, I understood that this was a big decision to really push this female-centered point of view forward and I felt that was a really great opportunity.” (The company won’t be commercializing Lele or the other designers’ collections, rather the World Tour is a showcase of their talents.)

    The Victoria’s Secret call took Lagos’s Bubu Ogisi by complete surprise. “To be honest, I kind of ignored it,” said the designer with a laugh. “My pieces are not really that fixated on lingerie, so I was a bit confused. But for this World Tour they’re experimenting, and the core element in my work is experimentation. So I thought, okay, it would be an amazing idea to confront how they normally create and how we can edit, modify, or change that structure.” Ogisi’s work showcases artisanal crafts from across Africa. “With this collection,” she explained, “everything is fixated on the idea of Yoruba and Edo mythology. Each person is going to be a divine being, a supreme higher entity, a quote/unquote goddess.”

    Note that Ogisi said goddess, not “sex goddess.” So, will the Victoria’s Secret World Tour be sexy? “Yes, absolutely,” said Martinez, but with a caveat. “We are looking at it through a female lens.”

    The main difference between the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows of old and the World Tour of 2023 would seem to be that women won’t just be objects for the delectation of viewers, they’ll be subjects too—the makers, each one with a different point of view about what’s sexy. “Obviously, there’s been a huge shift in representation, but I still think it’s rare to see women on screen presented in a recognizable way, especially in the framework of fashion,” observed Bowman, the director of the London portion of the documentary. “I just want people to watch it and be like, wow, there’s so many different ways that you can be a woman.”

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  • Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works to be split into separate companies

    Victoria’s Secret, Bath & Body Works to be split into separate companies

    Lingerie retailer Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works are to be demerged into two separately listed companies after parent L Brands opted not to sell the struggling apparel business.

    “Both Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret are leaders in their respective markets and, as separate businesses, each will be ideally positioned to benefit from a sharpened focus on pursuing growth strategies best suited to each company’s customer base and strategic objectives,” said L Brands chair Sarah Nash.

    The board has been mulling the sale or spin-off of Victoria’s Secret for more than a year, a process that went into hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Talks were held with “multiple” potential buyers, the company said, is a process during which the company was advised by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

    Neil Saunders, MD at GlobalData, described the decision as “telling”, suggesting that L Brands was not able to secure a bid that it considered compelling.

    “The divorce gives Victoria’s Secret no place to hide. Its numbers will no longer be flattered by the contribution of Bath & Body Works and its management team will be fully accountable to investors. Such accountability is no bad thing and will likely sharpen efforts to enact a genuine turnaround at the company.”

    In preliminary first-quarter results revealed along with the restructuring announcement, L Brands said it expects to record operating income of about US$570 million – $380 million from Bath & Body Works and $245 million from Victoria’s Secret.

    Nash said the company had made “significant progress in the turnaround of Victoria’s Secret business” during the past 10 months, implementing merchandise and marketing initiatives to drive top-line growth, and cutting costs, “which together have dramatically increased profitability”.

    Saunders was less bullish about the achievement saying there was “little evidence” on the surface to support claims the brand is on a pathway to recovery.

    “Last year, sales fell by 29.7 percent. Admittedly, this came against the backdrop of the pandemic, but the full-year performance was somewhat worse than that of the overall apparel market and considerably worse than rivals like Aerie. This is not to say that no progress has been made at Victoria’s Secret; however, the impact on the business has been negligible.

    “L Brands could be relying on the fact that as it enters its new fiscal year, growth rates will look very strong because they come up against soft comparatives from 2020,” he said. “However, this is a mathematical sleight of hand rather than a true indication of progress. Indeed, compared to 2019, sales will probably remain down.”

    He said creating two separate public companies makes sense given the current bull market and the move would likely create value for shareholders over time.

    “This is especially so for Bath & Body Works which, despite being the more successful of the two brands, is often overlooked and overshadowed by its less impressive sibling.”

    Meanwhile, L Brands said CEO Andrew Meslow would continue to hold his position and take the helm of Bath & Body Works after the spin-off. Victoria’s Secret CEO Martin Waters will continue to lead the new standalone business.

    Meslow said he expected L Brands to deliver a record first-quarter earnings result, driven by an exceptional performance at Bath & Body Works and a “significant improvement” at Victoria’s Secret. Final results will be revealed on May 19.

    L Brands operates 2681 company-operated specialty stores in the US, Canada, and greater China, has a further 700 franchised locations worldwide, and sells online.

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  • Victoria’s Secret owner raises profit target again on stimulus boost

    Victoria’s Secret owner raises profit target again on stimulus boost

    VICTORIA’S Secret owner L Brands raised its current-quarter profit forecast for the second time this month as customers use stimulus checks to buy everything from scented candles to lingerie, sending its shares to a three-year high.

    The company on Friday also cited the unusual shifts in spending patterns and relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions for the upbeat first-quarter forecast.

    Analysts have said that retailers are set to benefit from the $1.9 trillion aid bill passed earlier this month that included $1,400 checks for eligible families.

    The company’s Bath & Body Works business has boomed in recent quarters as a sharper focus on hygiene standards and increased interest in skin-care by home-bound customers during the pandemic lifted demand for soaps, lotions, and sanitizers.

    This prompted L Brands to raise its profit target for the current quarter earlier this month.

    The Ohio-based company’s shares, which have gained about 60% since the start of the year, rose as much as 8% to a near three-year high of $64.08 on Friday.

    L Brands, which is separating its Victoria’s Secret business later this year, has managed its inventory well to avoid heavy discounting that has plagued some U.S. retailers.

    The company said on Friday it expects an adjusted profit of 85 cents to $1 per share in the first quarter, up from its previous raised forecast of 55 cents to 65 cents per share.

    Analysts were expecting 62 cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

    Still, L Brands cautioned that it was not sure whether these improved trends would extend into the future.

    The company is scheduled to report its first-quarter results after markets close on May 19.

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  • L Brands appoints new Victoria’s Secret CEO

    L Brands appoints new Victoria’s Secret CEO

    Martin Waters, who currently leads the troubled brand’s lingerie division, has been promoted to CEO of business as a whole. He will take over from L Brand CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer who has served as interim chief executive at Victoria’s Secret for the past nine months.

    Burgdoerfer will retire this summer, the retailer announced Thursday, February 4. Waters, who joined the company in 2008 as head of the international division, will assume his new role effective immediately.

    L Brands said it expects the separation of Victoria’s Secret from Bath & Body Works to be completed in August. “All options, including a spin-off of the Victoria’s Secret business into a public company or a private sale of the business, are being evaluated,” L Brands said in a statement.

    L Brands had agreed to sell Victoria’s Secret to private equity firm Sycamore Partners in early 2020, but the deal fell through in the wake of the pandemic. With Sycamore out of the picture, the company said last May that it would still go forward with plans to separate its two entities and establish Bath & Body Works as a stand-alone public company.

    As part of the announcement Thursday, L Brands also raised its fourth-quarter earnings guidance and forecasted a comparable sales increase of 10 percent — a 22 percent increase at Bath & Body Works and a 3 percent decrease at Victoria’s Secret.

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  • Chian Strategic review launched of Victoria’s Secret future

    Chian Strategic review launched of Victoria’s Secret future

    The future of the Victoria’s Secret China business is under review as the lingerie retailer moves to permanently close 250 more US stores in a bid to right size and restore profits.

    Parent L Brands revealed a 37-per-cent slump in first-quarter sales to US$1.65 billion, with revenue from Victoria’s secret down 45.6 percent, in part due to store closures. However sales at its Bath & Body Works business fell by a more modest 18.1 percent, largely due to increased sales of sanitizer and soaps during the Covid-19 lockdown and strong online performance.

    Subsequent to releasing the results, the company said in an analysts’ briefing that it was “evaluating strategic alternatives to reduce or eliminate losses in the UK and China”.

    No further comment was made with regard to the Victoria’s Secret China business, however, there were indications last year that Victoria’s Secret may phase out its large-format flagship stores. By nature the generally loss-making flagships like the four-story one in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay exist to market the brand name, driving broader regional sales.

    L Brands’ overall first-quarter sales slump is largely in line with the performance of other US-base chains, who suffered from stores being closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. While online sales rose at the peak of the lockdowns, it was by no means enough to replace physical sales. However the figures for Bath & Body Works covered up the dismal performance of Victoria’s Secret.

    L Brands reported a $317.7 million operating loss for the quarter and an adjusted net loss of $296.9 million.

    Neil Saunders, MD at GlobalData Retail, said Victoria’s Secret has been a brand in decline for many years.

    “It went into this crisis in a weakened state and will emerge even more enfeebled. The sale of a large stake to Sycamore provided a potential route out of the ongoing funk in that it would inject some new management and thinking, but now that deal is off the future looks much more uncertain.”

    Saunders said the performance of Bath & Body Works was a strong result reflecting the brand’s popularity and its loyal customer base.

    “Before the crisis, sales in stores were up 20 percent on a comparable basis – a function of strong traffic and some excellent growth in home fragrance. When stores were closed, consumers turned to the online channel to get products, helping push direct sales up by 85 percent over the quarter.”

    Saunders said there is a question mark over the future of Victoria’s Secret in general. “The company is sizable in sales terms, but it lacks any real sense of direction or positive momentum. That needs to be quickly corrected if L Brands wants to attract new partners and investors and, indeed, if the brand is to have a sustainable future.”

    Meanwhile, Credit Suisse analyst Michael Binetti, was skeptical of the company’s ability to turn Victoria’s Secret around or prepare it for spinning off. He told Retail Dive that cost management plans – including store closures – put forward by management to analysts did not include enough evidence to reassure investors of Limited Brands’ ability or timing to effect a separation of Victoria’s Secret.

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  • Victoria’s Secret’s canceled annual fashion show

    Victoria’s Secret’s canceled annual fashion show

    Victoria’s Secret’s annual fashion show, where supermodels once walked down the runway wearing giant “angel” wings and elaborate lingerie sets, will not occur this holiday season.

    Stuart Burgdoerfer, CFO of the brand’s parent company L Brands, said on a call with investors on Thursday that Victoria’s Secret would be communicating with customers through social media and other platforms, but that it wouldn’t be “similar in magnitude to the fashion show”, which had been broadcast on network television in the US since 2001.

    “We think it’s important to evolve the marketing of Victoria’s Secret,” Burgdoerfer said.

    The news ends several months of speculation about the future of the fashion show after Victoria’s Secret said in May that show would not be part of network television this year, leaving open the possibility that it would be live-streamed online instead.

    But the show has been drawing a smaller audience for some time, as the brand’s “sexy” image has fallen out of favor with younger consumers and fashion trends have shifted towards bralettes and other less-padded styles.

    The fashion show was watched by 3.3 million Americans in 2018, compared with 12 million in 2001 when it was the first broadcast.

    The company also suffered a backlash last year when then-CMO Ed Razek told Vogue that the show wouldn’t have transgender models.

    L Brands posted a US$151.2 million operating loss in Q3 2019 on Thursday, which includes a US$284.7 million non-cash impairment charge related to Victoria’s Secret store and other assets, and a US$37.2 million charge to increase reserves related to ongoing guarantees for the La Senza business, which it sold in Q4 2018.

    Excluding these charges, its adjusted Q3 operating income was US$96.3 million and its adjusted net income was US$5.7 million.

    The retailer reported net sales of US$2.7 billion for the 13 weeks ended November 2, 2019, compared to US$2.8 billion for the prior corresponding period. Comparable sales were down 2 per cent in Q3 2019.

    The company is expecting a strong Q4, according to Reuters, and said its full-year adjusted earnings per share would be US$2.40, in line with its full-year guidance of between US$2.30 and US$2.60.

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  • Victoria’s Secret controversial marketing chief stops

    Victoria’s Secret controversial marketing chief stops

    Longtime Victoria’s Secret chief marketing officer Edward Razek will resign following months of negative PR centered on his comments about plus-size and transgender models in a Vogue interview.

    Edward Razek, who has personally selected the lingerie brand’s models for more than 15 years, said in the interview that such models had no place at Victoria’s Secret’s fashion shows, a remark well out of step with contemporary attitudes in the industry and among the general public.

    His departure came within days of Victoria’s Secret announcing its first steps toward inclusivity with the appointment of Brazilian transgender model Valentina Sampaio, (pictured above).

    “A few weeks ago, I shared with Les [Wexner, Victoria’s Secret owner L Brands’ CEO] my desire to retire sometime around mid-August,” said Edward Razek. “It was a tough conversation to have because, as some of you must know, we have shared so much together for so many years.”

    The departure comes at a point when more than 100 models have signed an open letter to Victoria’s Secret out of concern for the safety of women aspiring to model for the lingerie brand, following allegations of sexual misconduct directed at photographers who worked with the brand. The company has also been tainted by widespread media coverage of links between Wexner and disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, now in jail on charges relating to procuring sex with minors.

    “Corporations tend to treat the discovery of abuses as public-relations crises to be managed rather than human-rights violations to be remedied,” said founder and executive director of The Model Alliance Sara Ziff. “The Respect Program provides Victoria’s Secret an opportunity not only to right the wrongs of the past but also to work towards prevention.”

    Ed Wolf, L Brands’ senior VP of brand and creative, and Bob Campbell, VP of creative for Victoria’s Secret, will take over from Edward Razek until a permanent replacement is found.

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  • Victoria’s Secret parent to close stores as sales stagnate

    Victoria’s Secret parent to close stores as sales stagnate

    L Brands, the parent of Victoria’s Secret, saw its share price fall 8 per cent after releasing disappointing results and halving its dividend payout. The US-headquartered company is struggling to arrest declining revenue in its flagship lingerie network, where same-store sales fell 8 per cent in January, contributing to a 1 per cent drop in overall sales. Online sales, however, rose by 8 per cent.

    Overnight, subsequent to releasing its results, the company said it would close 53 stores in North America. Earlier this year it said it would reintroduce swimwear to its range after an absence of several years to increase foot traffic in stores.

    Net sales for the year to February 2 were US$13.237 billion compared to $12.632 billion for the 53 weeks ended February 3 last year. Adjusted to take account of the extra week, sales rose 3 per cent in the latest year.

    But after excluding significant one-off items, the company’s adjusted net income this year was $786.7 million compared to $919.5 million for the 53-week period last year.

    As a result of that decline, L Brands cut its quarterly dividend from 61 cents per share paid last year to just 30 cents.

    Analyst Randal Konik of Jefferies said L Brands’ banners “are not wanted anymore”.

    “Keep in mind that comps remain negative despite very high promos, which means true brand demand is even worse than reported as some consumers buy things when they are given away for free or marked down by more than 50-75 per cent,” he said.

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  • L Brands sells La Senza lingerie business

    L Brands sells La Senza lingerie business

    US retailer L Brands has agreed to transfer full ownership and operations of its Canadian-headquartered La Senza lingerie brand to a Regent LP affiliate. Upon completion, the private equity investor will assume La Senza’s debts and all future considerations for the brand. The deal is part of L Brands’ efforts to focus on its core brands as its flagship label Victoria’s Secret faces challenging shifts in the market.

    L Brands this year closed down its heritage women’s apparel line Henri Bendel after 123 years of trading. The sale of both Henri Bendel and La Senza is expected to encourage investors concerned about Victoria’s Secret’s declining performance as direct-to-consumer startups and the emerging success of rival label Aerie threaten the brand’s market supremacy.

    L Brands expects this year’s sales for La Senza will hit around $250 million with operating losses of about $40 million.

    La Senza was founded in 2006 and at its peak in 2010 had some 800 stores worldwide, 320 of them in Canada. But by 2013 the business was in decline, under competitive pressures from rival brands including Victoria’s Secret. By January last year, the store network had contracted to just 329, including 122 in Canada and four in the US.

    In 2011 a separate company La Senza UK, which held the franchise to the brand in the UK and Ireland, was placed in administration and later acquired by Kuwait-based Alshaya, but despite a further change of ownership, that business was placed in administration again in 2014.

    Other stores using the brand around the world are operating under a franchise agreement.

  • Victoria’s Secret opens first flagship store in Australia

    Victoria’s Secret opens first flagship store in Australia

    Victoria’s Secret has opened its debut flagship store in Australia, the first store in the nation to offer the U.S. lingerie giant’s full range of apparel, innerwear and accessories. Located in Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping Centre, the Victoria’s Secret store opened to much fanfare at 5:30 am local time, with a ribbon cutting ceremony last week.

    Some one thousand women camped outside and waited for a first look at the store, according to local media reports, with the first shoppers getting a $180 voucher.

    Designed to reflect the firm’s New York flagship store on Fifth Avenue, Victoria’s SecretMelbourne is fitted out the brand’s recognised pink, and hosts an in-store display that holds approximately 12,000 pairs of panties.

    There’s also a separate entrance for its Victoria’s Secret Pink collections.

    The new Australian store in addition sells Body by Victoria, Very Sexy, Dream Angels, Bombshell, cotton lingerie and Victoria’s Sport athleisure line.

    The Melbourne opening marks the first official Victoria’s Secret store in Australia, separating itself from concession stores inside malls and Australian airports that are limited to selling fragrance and cosmetics.

    Victoria’s Secret recently announced it had appointed fashion executive John Mehas as its new lingerie chief executive.

    Mehas will take over in January, replacing Jan Singer, who has now resigned.

    “Our number one priority is improving performance,” L Brands chairman and chief executive officer Leslie Wexner said at the time of announcing.

    “I am confident that, under John’s leadership, Victoria’s Secret Lingerie…will continue to be a powerhouse and will deliver products and experiences.”

    Victoria’s Secret operates 1600 stores globally.

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  • L Brands loss revealed, Victoria’s Secret faces challenge

    L Brands loss revealed, Victoria’s Secret faces challenge

    Lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret needs to reinvent itself, says retail analyst Neil Saunders, commenting in the wake of a US$42.8 million loss by its parent L Brands. “The brand is simply not connecting and resonating with consumers in the way that it once did. Its overt sexuality, its focus on airbrushed glamour, and its dark-and-moody stores are completely out of step with the mood of most modern consumers,” said Saunders, MD of GlobalData Retail.

    “However, this is not a new phenomenon, Victoria’s Secret has been out of kilter for a long period of time – and has seemingly done very little to bring itself back into line.”

    Sales at Victoria’s Secret have fallen in seven out of the last eight quarters, mainly due to its weak diffusion brand Pink, launched in 2002 and aimed at college-aged women.

    “In Pink, fashion errors in loungewear have driven a recent deceleration in performance,” the company admitted in its earnings statement.

    L Brands’ third-quarter results showed an increase in same-store sales of 4 per cent across the group, to $2.77 billion, but Victoria’s Secret store sales fell by 2 per cent.

    The top line was boosted by L Brands’ Bath & Body Works brand. But one-off costs from the closure of Henri Bendel, impairments at Victoria’s Secret and ongoing losses in the La Senza business drove the net loss.

    Saunders described the Victoria’s Secret performance as disappointing, “not only with the sales numbers but by the inertia within the business”.

    He said much of the brand’s failure to change came down to embedded attitudes within management.

    “The recent insensitive comments about transsexuals from chief marketing officer, Ed Razek, in a Vogue interview characterise the problems. Not only are such remarks bad for the brand’s image, but it also earned a sharp public rebuke from the CEO of more incisive rival ThirdLove which has been stealing share from Victoria’s Secret for some time.

    “In theory, the departure of Jan Singer as CEO should help herald in changes someone coming in will have fresh ideas about reviving the fortunes of Victoria’s Secret.”

    L Brands has appointed John Mehas from lifestyle brand Tory Burch as the new CEO of Victoria’s Secret. He will take up the role early next year.

    Pink CEO Denise Landman retired after the release of the L Brands half-year results and she was replaced on October 1 by former Bath & Body Works president for merchandising and product development, Amy Hauk.

    “Our new leaders are coming in with a fresh perspective and looking at everything … our marketing, brand positioning, internal talent, real estate portfolio and cost structure,” said CEO Leslie Wexner.

    Saunders said Bath & Body Works was a stark contrast to the core brand.

    “The company’s wholesome brand image and its focus on small indulgences are paying real dividends – especially in a consumer economy where shoppers have more money to treat themselves. Its strong range development which means assortments are constantly changing encourages regular visits to online and stores. It also means that the company is good at jumping on trends like aromatherapy-based scents and the ongoing popularity of candles. Second, good marketing and promotions help to drive volumes through the business,” said Saunders.

    “Both of these things stem from the fact that the BBW team is much more attuned to the market and consumer trends than is the case at Victoria’s Secret. Indeed, the cultures at the two divisions could not be more different, and we believe that Victoria’s Secret should take a leaf out of its sister brand’s playbook as it looks to reinvent itself.”

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  • Victoria’s Secret apologises for ‘insensitive’ transgender model comment

    Victoria’s Secret apologises for ‘insensitive’ transgender model comment

    Following the backlash on social media, the chief marketing officer of L Brands, parent company of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, has posted an apology on Twitter for comments he made about transgender models. Ed Razek, L Brands’s CMO, released a statement on Twitter clarifying a comment he made in an interview with Vogue magazine, which read:

    “To be clear, we absolutely would cast a transgender model in our show. We’ve had transgender models come to castings… And like many others, they didn’t make it.”

    Razek and Monica Mitro, vice president of public relations for Victoria’s Secret, sat down in an interview with Vogue which touched on the topic on the casting team’s choices. Razek, who is part of the casting team, mentioned the company had considered putting plus-sized models and transgenders in the show but had not acted on it, since the company “did not market to the whole world.”

    L Brands has recently announced it is expecting a third quarter loss per share of about US$0.17.  The reported loss per share includes a total charge of about US$0.32 per share, which consists of an approximate pretax cash charge of US$20 million related to the closure of its Henri Bendel business, and an approximate pretax non-cash impairment charge of US$80 million related to certain Victoria’s Secret store assets.

    Excluding the charges mentioned, the company expects adjusted third quarter earnings per share to be approximately US$0.15, compared to its previous guidance of US$0.00 to US$0.05, principally driven by outperformance at Bath & Body Works.

    The company has recently reported an 8 per cent increase in sales of US$860.5 million for the four weeks ending November 3 and a 4 per cent increase in same-store sales for the period. It has seen a 6 per cent increase for the 13 weeks ending November 3 of US$2.78 billion compared to the previous corresponding period.

    L Brands, is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings on November 21.

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  • Swarovski creates Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra

    Swarovski creates Victoria’s Secret Fantasy Bra

    Atelier Swarovski has partnered with Victoria’s Secret to craft this year’s 2018 Dream Angels Fantasy Bra. The bra, which will be modelled by Victoria’s Secret Angel Elsa Hosk at the 2018 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in New York, is crafted with more than 2100 Swarovski-created diamonds and topaz. Also, for the first time, the Fantasy Bra will place sustainability centrestage.

    Valued at US$1 million, the elaborate design took four craftsmen 930 hours to create, incorporating 71.05 carats of created diamonds with a pear-shape Swarovski created diamond centre stone weighing 2.03 carats. The bra’s casing is also set in sterling silver.

    Member of the Swarovski executive board Nadja Swarovski said the company was delighted to have been selected to collaborate with Victoria’s Secret on this year’s Fantasy Bra.

    “This stunning handcrafted Atelier Swarovski piece features thousands of Swarovski created diamonds set alongside responsibly sourced topaz. We hope it provides a bold new vision of luxury – mixing glamour and innovative materials – when it hits the runway at this legendary show.”

    Swarovski created diamonds are grown in a lab, yet have the same optical, chemical and physical attributes as mined diamonds – both are 100-per cent carbon and have the same hardness and brilliance.

    Elsa and the Fantasy Bra will walk the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show runway on December 2.

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