Farfetch founder José Neves ‘exits CEO post’

In news that might not come as too much of a surprise, it’s being reported that Farfetch founder and CEO José Neves is among more than one member of the leadership team stepping down in the wake of the firm’s takeover by South Korea’s Coupang.

The move hasn’t been officially announced but is being credited to an “internal memo” and comes less than a month after the company averted collapse as Coupang took control for a fraction of what it had once been worth as a stock exchange-listed firm.

It’s bellied that chief fashion and merchandising officer at Farfetch/Browns CEO Elizabeth Von Der Goltz, and head of Farfetch Platform Solutions Kelly Kowal are also leaving.

The news was reported by both WWD and Business of Fashion, citing an internal memo.

But Neves isn’t exiting the business entirely with WWD saying he’ll have a consultancy role. 

It’s also been reported that the business will be run for now by Coupang founder Bom Kim and the rest of the Farfetch executive team.

It’s believed more job cuts are ahead at the firm as Coupang works to streamline Farfetch and get it back to its core strength of operating as a marketplace through which luxury boutiques can sell high-end fashion.

Neves founded Farfetch in 2008 and rode the wave of growing online luxury sales. During the pandemic, with stores shut worldwide, the business made hay while the sun shone in the same way as e-tailers further down the price scale (such as Boohoo, ASOS and Zalando) did.

But post-pandemic, the enthusiastic return to physical stores took many online businesses by surprise and Farfetch was among them. 

Critics also said that its move into non-core areas — such as buying New Guards Group and launching (then later axing) beauty — overstretched it. But while some shareholders were impatient about when enduring profitability might happen, its problems didn’t seem to be acute until H2 last year.

The ambitious and now-cancelled deal for Farfetch to take over Richemont’s Yoox Net-A-Porter business still seemed to be on as recently October when it got competition clearance. And even though the company exited beauty in August, it was still hailing progress that it was making on key metrics during that month.

In November, the abrupt cancellation of its results report and rumours that Neves would take it private still didn’t seem to mean it was close to collapse. But by December, it was reported to be in urgent talks to shore up its funding as it was in danger of running out of cash. The Coupang deal was unveiled in December and completed last month.

As to it being no surprise that Neves is stepping down, it’s not the first time that a founder has overseen massive growth followed by some major problems and a takeover, only to step aside as anything from a tweak to a complete clearout of existing leadership is launched by new majority owners.