The transition away from a focus on lingerie models to inclusion continues to be a rocky one for Victoria’s Secret, which quietly laid off about 5% of its management team as part of an overall corporate restructuring that the company said will serve it better in the long run.
VS’s announcement of the reduction of about 160 management roles was part of a larger announcement Tuesday (July 12) of the company’s new corporate structure, including three new executive appointments. The changes are expected to result in $40 million in cost savings for Victoria’s Secret.
The corporate overhaul includes bringing together the company’s three lines of business — Victoria’s Secret, PINK, and Beauty — under one umbrella.
Amy Hauk, CEO of PINK since 2018, has been named CEO for Victoria’s Secret and PINK, allowing VS&Co to integrate its merchandising, planning, marketing and creative teams and better engage customers across VS and PINK.
Christine Rupp will join VS&Co as chief customer officer, and is tasked with creating a more seamless experience between shopping in stores and online. She comes from Albertsons as its chief customer and digital officer, and had prior experience at Microsoft and Amazon, where she led Fulfillment by Amazon and launched Amazon Prime Day.
Greg Unis, who has led the Victoria’s Secret and PINK Beauty businesses since 2016, has been named chief growth officer. He will head the VS&Co-Lab platform and manage new business development, international expansion and mergers and acquisitions. Unis will continue to lead VS&Co’s real estate and store design and construction teams, focused on expanding VS’ store of the future initiative.
“Uniting our brands as a single, collaborative organization under Amy’s leadership will bring greater focus and discipline to our merchandising expertise while streamlining our processes and improving our speed to market,” said Martin Waters, VS&Co CEO, in the company press release.
Related: Victoria’s Secret Still Growing Into Its New Identity
In June, Victoria’s Secret reported net sales of $1.484 billion for Q1, down 4.5% from the same time one year earlier. Total comparable sales for the first quarter of 2022, meanwhile, fell 8% from the first quarter of 2021.
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