Lauren looks to P&G vet as chief

Ralph Lauren Corp. hired Patrice Louvet as its next chief executive officer, tasking a Procter & Gamble Co. veteran with leading a difficult turnaround at the preppy apparel brand.

Louvet will take the reins July 17 and join the board, the company said Wednesday. The CEO will report to the fashion house's eponymous founder and executive chairman, suggesting that the 77-year-old Ralph Lauren will maintain an active role.

The previous CEO, Stefan Larsson, had disagreed with the founder over creative decisions. That hampered efforts to turn around a business that's struggling with heavy discounting and sliding sales. Ralph Lauren signaled that Louvet's tenure may have a more cooperative spirit, praising Louvet's "collaborative working style."

"Finding the right partner to work with me to take us forward in our evolution has been my primary focus over the last several months," Lauren said in a statement.

In choosing Louvet, the company is turning to a French native who spent more than 25 years at P&G, the world's largest consumer-products maker. He most recently ran the global beauty business, a division with $11.5 billion in sales. P&G offloaded a large swath of its beauty business to Coty Inc. last year in a $12.5 billion deal.

Louvet previously oversaw P&G's Gillette lineup and its prestige division, which included fashion brands such as Gucci and Hugo Boss.

The pick failed to comfort Wall Street. The shares fell 1.6 percent to close at $72.75 in New York trading Wednesday. The stock had already declined 18 percent this year through Tuesday's close.

The tepid reception could mean that "investors expected someone with a slightly different professional background, and more meaningful track record in apparel and the fashion industry," said Chen Grazutis, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. "That doesn't mean he can't be very successful in this role."

Ralph Lauren has been seeking a new CEO since the abrupt announcement in February that Larsson was leaving. Chief Financial Officer Jane Nielsen served as interim chief during the search.

-- Information for this article was contributed by Jenn Zhao of Bloomberg News.

Business on 05/18/2017

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