Victoria’s Secret & Co.’s CEO Hillary Super is under fire just nine months into her tenure from an investor who would like to see the lingerie giant step back into the past.
In a letter to the retailer’s board chair this week, Barington Capital Group Chairman and CEO James Mitarotonda advocated for bringing back the lingerie giant’s “iconic Angels campaign” and shaking up its board, and against its adoption of a poison pill last month to stave off a hostile takeover. He criticized Super as having limited leadership experience, especially at a public company or in intimates, and has demonstrated “a troubling lack of strategic focus.”
Super arrived in September after serving as Savage x Fenty CEO for about a year. In April she brought on Adam Selman, previously chief design officer for Savage X Fenty, to be executive creative director.
Victoria’s Secret & Co. in an email to Retail Dive expressed confidence in its “strategy under the new and experienced leadership team” and said that, while Barington hasn’t sought to engage with the company, it was open to a discussion.
Mitarotonda gave Barington Capital props for L Brand’s stock performance of several years ago. The firm was advising the L Brands board until the once-mammoth apparel conglomerate formally spun off Victoria’s Secret in 2021. Since then the lingerie company has lost over $2.4 billion in shareholder value, he wrote. As of Friday Barington owned more than 1% of Victoria’s Secret & Co.’s outstanding common stock.
“We can’t bring back the Angels because we’re not in that time, and that’s what shot down Victoria’s Secret in the first place.”
Jessica Ramírez
Co-founder and Managing Director, The Consumer Collective
The company was losing market share back then, too, however, and Barington’s idea to revive the old Angels campaign would be shortsighted, according to Jessica Ramírez, co-founder and managing director of The Consumer Collective advisory firm. The brand’s share losses continued through its most recent quarter.
“We can’t bring back the Angels because we’re not in that time, and that’s what shot down Victoria’s Secret in the first place,” she said. “They didn’t catch up with the times, they didn’t want to innovate. To want to bring back the exact same model, the exact same messaging, from when it was successful — you have to understand that the ‘90s and the 2000s were a different time. That go-to-market strategy isn’t going to work today.”
The Angels did return last fall after a six-year hiatus, but that was a lower-key, more inclusive event, she said by phone.
Mitarotonda also had linguistic criticisms, slamming “internal rhetoric referring to senior leadership as a ‘super squad’” as “arrogant and unjustified given the company’s declining performance.” He said it was surprising that executives “expressed satisfaction” during the company’s most recent earnings call, counting 14 mentions of being “pleased” or “proud.”
Barington is unlikely to let up the pressure any time soon, according to Jason Schloetzer, a professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, who called the firm’s letter “a shot across the bow to an underperforming management team.”
“Underperforming management typically strikes a tone of seriousness and concern, so Barington may be pointing out that routinely mentioning how ‘proud’ management is with the company’s current performance, which appears to be less than super, is well out of step with reality,” Schloetzer said by email. “If there isn’t some combination of a change to strategic direction, modest evidence of leadership change, and a tweak to board composition after this letter, I suspect Barington will make another move to shake up the company.”
But it’s too soon to judge Super, according to Ramírez. It will be a full year before the results of her team’s efforts will be truly evident, she said.
“Victoria’s Secret still has large market share, and it’s a big brand, but the reality is, it has definitely lost a lot of the market and it is out of touch. They have a bunch of issues with quality, design, marketing — and while it’s better, it’s still not the best,” she said.
In its email Wednesday, Victoria’s Secret acknowledged the need for further improvement but said it’s making inroads.
“As outlined on our March and June earnings calls, bras and beauty are at the center of the Victoria’s Secret Path to Potential strategy, and these efforts are showing momentum in spite of the challenging market environment,” the company said. “While we have more work to do, we are already delivering meaningful progress, including exceeding revenue and adjusted operating income guidance in the first quarter.”