Turmoil at The Limited.
Tuesday, July 31st, 2007Len Schlesinger, vice chairman and chief operating officer at The Limited, has left the company and his responsibilities will be shared by Leslie Wexner, chairman and CEO, and Martyn Redgrave, exec v-p and chief administrative officer.
The Limited is in the process of overhauling the company and selling off its apparel retail units. MottusBeauty has learned that Schlesinger’s departure followed one day after the announcement of deep cutbacks in Bath & Body Works’ product development group.
The buzz at BBW was that the firm would be sold-off and that research and development as well as product development would be redundant if Procter & Gamble or Estee Lauder bought the company. It is unlikely that those two firms would be interested in buying this retail unit.
Wexner is a retail icon, and it’s obvious that he intends to concentrate on Victoria’s Secret lingerie and beauty as well as Bath & Body Works. Sharen Turney, CEO of Victorias’s Secret, is a Wexner favorite and could very well succeed him when he decides to retire.
Schlesinger taught at Harvard Business School and had consulted to The Limited prior to joining the company in the late 1990s. Schlesinger had brought in Neil Fiske (Harvard and The Boston Consulting Group) to run BBW. Fiske recently left to join Eddie Bauer as its CEO. Christine Beauchamp, president of Victoria’s Secret Beauty, was also a protégé of Schlesinger, and there is some discussion that this division could also see its personnel slashed.
BBW is also not going to take new third-party brands, say sources. The question is where does Wexner take his company next? Will he meld BBW and Victoria’s Secret Beauty into one unit? Will he sell Henri Bendel? Diane Neal, CEO of BBW, may reorganize its product development units into a more measured unit. That is fewer products will be introduced (they launch several thousand per year), and it will concentrate on select brand building. It also reflects the slowdown in overall beauty sales.