6/18/2025
Victoria’s Secret Sticks Up for CEO Who Investor Says Is Failing
Bloomberg (06/18/25) Meier, Lily
Victoria’s Secret & Co. (VSCO) spared no expense to lure Chief Executive Hillary Super away from Rihanna: It paid nearly $760,000 for her relocation costs, including real estate agent fees and six months of temporary housing, and more than $11,000 for personal security. Nine months into that big bet, investors including Australian billionaire Brett Blundy aren’t impressed. Blundy’s BBRC International PTE Limited has decried “continued mismanagement” and “disastrous board-level decisions.” Another shareholder alleges that Super lacks focus and experience, and doesn’t have the trust of her staff. It’s all piling pressure on Super, who has faced challenge after challenge since leaving Rihanna’s Savage X Fenty brand last year to take the top job at Victoria’s Secret. Once the undisputed leader in the bra business, Victoria’s Secret has struggled to appeal to shifting consumer tastes, a competitive retail landscape packed with upstart lingerie and athleisurewear brands, back-and-forth tariff rules, and a recent security incident that is expected to lead to millions of dollars in lost sales. Since L Brands spun off Victoria’s Secret in 2021, shares of the lingerie company have fallen by more than half. Victoria’s Secret disputed the investor criticism on Tuesday, saying Super has “established a new strategy that is already demonstrating meaningful progress.” The company noted that first-quarter results exceeded its guidance. “While change will take time and Hillary is early in her tenure, we believe we are gaining traction and building momentum,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “The board has full confidence in Hillary’s vision, leadership and her ability to unlock the potential of our iconic brands.” Traditionally, new executives have “a year to a couple of years’ runway to start making an impact,” said Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData. With Super, “the fact activist investors have jumped in so early on, I think reduces the runway.” Under Super’s leadership, Victoria’s Secret has been rethinking its approach on bras, taking into account changing preferences in the core category. She told investors in June that younger consumers were “interacting with intimates, specifically bras, in a different way” — moving away from underwire bras and toward less-restrictive sports bras. Super, who was an executive at Urban Outfitters Inc.’s Anthropologie brand before leading Savage X Fenty, also said she wants Victoria’s Secret to move “beyond a bra-centric approach” by prioritizing apparel and the company’s younger Pink brand as well. Her playbook has not satisfied investors. On June 16, two days before the company’s annual shareholders meeting, investor Barington Capital Group said in a letter to the chair of the board that Super “has limited chief executive and public company experience, only a brief tenure in intimate apparel, and does not appear to have gained the confidence of employees.” BBRC, one of the retailer’s largest investors, has been steadily increasing its stake in the company since March and now holds about 13% of shares. The ramp-up led Victoria’s Secret to adopt a shareholder rights plan to thwart a potential hostile takeover. It’s not just investors who are growing impatient: Employees, too, are displeased, according to Barington, which said Super’s approval rating on Glassdoor is below the average CEO rating. The Victoria’s Secret spokesperson said the company’s latest employee survey showed that employee engagement “is better than benchmarks and at an all-time high since the company went public in 2021.” Barington wrote that Super’s “focus on re-launching secondary brands such as Pink and expanding into athleticwear, while failing to prioritize the Company’s core business and international growth, indicates to us a troubling lack of strategic focus.” Saunders, the retail analyst, disagreed, saying Super — who has also worked at Guess? Inc., American Eagle Outfitters Inc., and Gap Inc. — “does understand this market.” He suggested that it might be the investors who were misguided. “Victoria’s Secret is primarily a brand for women and it was run by men for a very long time, and they made a big mess of it,” he said. “The activist investors are men as well, and quite honestly I do think sometimes these men of Wall Street need to sit down and take a seat because they don’t really understand the womenswear business.”
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