// Victoria’s Secret owner is looking to sell the retailer
// L Brands CEO Leslie Wexner in talks to step down
// Victoria’s Secret has struggled with falling sales and competition
Victoria’s Secret owner L Brands is looking to sell the lingerie retailer as chief executive Leslie Wexner announces he is in talks to step down from the group.
Wexner has been in his role for 57 years and has led Abercrombie & Fitch, The Limited and Victoria’s Secret.
He is in talks to resign as chief executive but may stay as chairman.
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Wexner is also under scrutiny for his ties to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, The New York Times reported.
Victoria’s Secret has struggled with falling sales and competition from upstart lingerie brands in recent years.
Like-for-like sales at Victoria’s Secret fell 12 per cent in the nine weeks to January 4, while group sales fell by three per cent.
In October, Victoria’s Secret made 15 per cent of its employees redundant at its Columbus, Ohio, headquarters.
To add to the retailer’s woes, its chief marketing officer, Ed Razek resigned just days after the lingerie retailer hired its first ever trans model.
In 2018, in a controversial statement to Vogue, Razek said “transsexual” models should not be cast “because the show is a fantasy”.
Razek also told Vogue that plus-size models did not fit the Victoria’s Secret mould and audiences had “no interest” in seeing them.
He later apologised for his remarks.
Despite his apology, viewing figures for the retailer’s 2018 fashion show slumped to an all-time low and faced declining sales and store closures.
It cancelled its annual fashion show last year amid declining ratings and a huge public backlash.
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