Victoria’s Secret announces strategic growth plan

Victoria’s Secret & Co. has announced a new strategic growth plan to "strengthen the core, ignite growth and transform the foundation" of the business.

To strengthen the core, the group hopes to grow market share across its key categories of bras, intimates and beauty. The business is also looking to evolve its brand positioning to be more inclusive and attract a more loyal customer base, with more emphasis on story telling in stores and on its digital platforms.

To ignite growth, Victoria’s Secret plans to develop its global footprint primarily through international partners. The group will also add new brands to its portfolio, organically or through investments, with a focus on categories and customer groups where the business is underrepresented.

To transform the foundation, the group claims it will build a "modern, high performing, agile, empowered and enabled" organisation to deliver efficiencies and invest in its people and culture.

Victoria’s Secret expects operating income in the third quarter to be towards the high end of its previous guidance range of $10 million to $40 million.

Martin Waters, Victoria’s Secret & Co. CEO, said: “Our market position atop the domestic intimates category is a key strength and growth opportunity for our business. We are energised by our customer’s response to our brand transformation and remain committed to becoming the Victoria’s Secret our customers and associates deserve.

"We have created a solid financial platform during the last 15 months as a public company. With our new operating structure in place, we now have even greater agility and an aligned focus on our customer and our strategic priorities. We are positioned to deliver sustainable long-term sales growth and mid-teens operating margin rates over time, and we expect the power of our model will generate significant cash flow to invest in growth and also return value to shareholders through our capital allocation strategy.”