Troubled Victoria’s Secret Gets New CEO

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 2:41PM EST · Published Nov 20, 6:40AM EST

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Troubled Victoria’s Secret Gets New CEO — © Lya_Cattel / Getty Images

Victoria’s Secret, the battered lingerie brand, has a new CEO. Parent L Brands, Inc. (NYSE: LB) reported John Mehas has been named Victoria’s Secret chief

Mehas comes from successful clothing and accessories company Tory Burch, where he was president. Prior to that, he worked at Club Monaco, a part of Polo Ralph Lauren.

Victoria’s Secret needs a quick turnaround. Once the standard-bearer of the American lingerie business, its same-store sales fell 2% in the quarter which ended October 28. That was on top of a 4% drop in the same period a year ago. Revenue for the recent quarter was $ 1,528.8 million compared with $ 1,538.9 million in the year-ago period.

The trouble at Victoria’s Secret has contributed to a 42% drop in the share price of parent L Brands so far this year. The company also cut its annual dividend from $2.40 to $1.20. The savings of $325 million will be used to pay down debt

Victoria’s Secret has a number of emerging and growing brands which have challenged its position as the most popular lingerie brand. These include Cosabella, Else, Lonely, and The Great Eros. Some of these brands are more “racy” than Victoria’s Secret. Others are designed to cater to the woman who wears sizes larger than those Victoria’s Secret usually promotes

The annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is a showcase of thin models who showed off the brand’s sexiest outfits. It is seen by millions of people around the world via TV and over the internet. Recently, it has been criticized for showing models who have figures with proportions rarely similar to those of Victoria’s Secret customers.

One of the ways that the company has tried to keep customers and bring in new ones is sharp discounts. Some popular items carry 40% discounts as the brand enters the critical holiday season.

When he announced the appointment of Mehas, L Brands Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Leslie H. Wexner said: “Our number one priority is improving performance at Victoria’s Secret Lingerie and PINK. In doing so, 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.”

It is rare that an iconic brand faces an examination of “everything”

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.