Ignore Victoria’s Secret Hot Mess at Your Peril
Bath & Body Works helped buoy parent L Brands, but its long-term health depends on reviving the fortunes of its sagging lingerie chain.
In need of a makeover.
Photographer: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images North AmericaConsumer stocks as a whole were slammed on Thursday amid fears about the trade showdown between the U.S. and China. L Brands Inc. bucked the trend: Not only were the retailer’s shares spared, they were on pace for their best one-day gain since 2009 after a better-than-expected first quarter earnings report.
Investors were clearly dazzled by the strong performance of its Bath & Body Works chain, which delivered booming comparable sales growth of 13% from a year earlier – a gain that’s especially impressive given that it came on top of an 8% lift on this measure a year earlier. But body lotion and bath bombs can only take L Brands so far. The health of the company depends on a revitalization of its largest brand, Victoria’s Secret, and these latest quarterly results did little to demonstrate that real change is taking hold there.