Hillary Super has had three months as chief executive officer to take a close look at Victoria’s Secret & Co. — and she likes what she sees.
And that enthusiasm was picked up by Wall Street.
Shares of the lingerie giant jumped 11.6 percent to $48.02 on Friday after the company showed signs of a third-quarter turnaround and Super started to lay out her vision for the future of Victoria’s Secret, which returned to the runway in October.
“Our brand is about sexy, glamorous, accessible luxury,” Super told analysts on a conference call of the firm’s namesake chain. “We were building toward that with the new team that was put in place about 12, 18 months ago. The fashion show really doubled down on that. And when you look at what’s working in the business, it is exactly that. It is sexy, glamorous and accessible luxury.
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“The fashion show introduced us to a new generation of consumers,” Super said. “We weren’t on that radar, we hadn’t been in the cultural conversation. And I think we came in and surprised her, and she was like, ‘Oh, I’m going to pay attention to this.’ We are engaging with an entirely new generation of young women who are saying to us, ‘We want big hair. We want more glamor. We want more shine. We want more of it. We want all of it.’ And that’s exciting because we know how to do that.”
The company — which in addition to its namesake chain owns Pink and Adore Me — narrowed its third-quarter net losses to $56.2 million from $71.2 million a year earlier while adjusted losses per share of 50 cents came in 12 cents ahead of analysts projections.
Sales rose 7 percent to $1.3 billion.
“Our strong [third-quarter] performance indicates we’ve reached an important milestone in that transformation. In short, it’s working, and we’re starting to see the results. These results were powered by emotional product she loves and clear elevated brand storytelling,” the CEO said.
Both Victoria’s Secret and Pink logged sales growth in North America for the quarter, when third-party data showed that the overall intimates market was down by low-single digits, she said.
Victoria’s Secret made its name with a certain va-va-voom approach to sexiness that was seen as too interested in male gaze and out of step with consumers.
The brand spent some time trying to find the right approach and is now back with more sizzle and some adjustments. The runway show, for instance, was orchestrated by women and was also more commercial than early iterations, with all the looks on the catwalk drawn from the holiday collection that consumers can buy in stores.
The company is looking for sales to increase by 2 percent to 4 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with the same 13-week period in 2023.
Super said the retailer’s biggest opportunity is to “get the best of who we are back at the center of how we work in three way” by:
- Putting the customer at the center of every conversation.
- Differentiating Pink and Victoria’s Secret “in every way, from product to marketing to in-store and online experiences.”
- And driving innovation and brand heat. “Victoria’s Secret and Pink can and should not only be in the cultural conversation, but also creating cultural moments through products and marketing,” the CEO said.
