Victoria’s Secret names Rihanna exec as its new CEO, upgrades Q2 guidance

Lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret & Co (VS&Co) has named Hillary Super as its new CEO and board member, effective September 9. She succeeds Martin Waters in both roles. 

Chief financial and administrative officer Timothy (TJ) Johnson will serve as interim CEO until then while Waters will “remain employed as an advisor to the company through August 31 to support a smooth transition”.

The company said Super “brings nearly three decades of retail merchant expertise and a successful track record leading brands at the highest level. Her leadership experience with omnichannel brands spans intimates, apparel, accessories, beauty and home, where she demonstrated an ability to anticipate consumer needs and deliver high-emotion brands, products and customer experiences focused on driving profitable growth”.

She was most recently CEO of intimates and accessories brand Savage X Fenty after having been global CEO of Urban Outfitters-owned Anthropologie Group.

VS&Co chair Donna James said she’ll power the business’ next chapter and deliver the foremost tenet of our transformation strategy: accelerating growth in our core business in North America. 

“We are particularly impressed with her merchant leadership capabilities paired with an operator’s discipline and bias for driving value creation. She understands vertically integrated retail brands and has an intuitive understanding of the consumer landscape, informed by customer insights”.

She also thanked Waters “for his many contributions to Victoria’s Secret. He has established a foundation for VS&Co to enter its next chapter, building an inclusive culture, growing our digital platform capabilities, enhancing the customer experience online and in stores, repositioning our international business for growth, and successfully executing our multi-year separation from our former parent company. We believe now is the right time to take the next step on our journey with new merchant-operator leadership to fully capitalize on the opportunities ahead for VS&Co”.

The company also released its preliminary Q2 24 results (the quarter ended August 3) with net sales, adjusted operating income, and adjusted diluted earnings per share expected to be within or to exceed previously issued guidance ranges.

Net sales should be down between 1% and 2% rather than falling between 1% and 3% as previously forecast, while adjusted operating income should be $57 million to $62 million rather than the $30 million to $45 million guided for. And adjusted diluted EPS should be $0.34 to $0.39 compared to the $0.05 to $0.20 of its prior forecast.

Johnson said the business was “encouraged by the continued sequential improvement in quarterly sales results in North America, as sales trends improved in both our stores and digital channels.

“Throughout the quarter, our merchant teams delivered newness of product with particular success in the launch of our Victoria’s Secret Dream bra collection, and in apparel with our PINK Friday back to campus event in late July. 

“Improving product acceptance and disciplined inventory management led to strong margin performance and our teams continue to relentlessly focus on improving our cost structure, the combination of which has driven year-over-year quarterly operating income growth for the first time since 2021”.