Tapestry CEO says she’s committed to fixing Kate Spade, pushing Coach forward
Listen and subscribe to Opening Bid Unfiltered on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
Tapestry (TPR) CEO Joanne Crevoiserat is thinking big about the handbag business.
“We’ve gone through this huge transformation of our business and really thinking about bringing our brands to market differently, bringing them to consumers differently, creating real emotional connections with consumers,” Crevoirserat said in a new episode of Yahoo Finance’s Opening Bid Unfiltered podcast (see video above or listen below).
Tapestry is the owner of handbag and accessories brands Coach and Kate Spade.
Crevoiserat continued, “So as we’ve architected this transformation, the leadership team and I now have even more confidence about the exponential growth that’s in front of us, just organically with these two brands.”
Crevoiserat has emerged as one of the most successful leaders in the modern luxury retail industry, transforming Tapestry through a disciplined focus on brand building, higher quality products, digital innovation, and consumer engagement.
She has helped guide the company through the COVID-19 pandemic and a rapidly changing retail landscape. Since she was named permanent CEO in October 2020, Tapestry’s stock price has increased by approximately 559%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) is up 90% over that time span. Rival Capri Holdings (CPRI) — owner of the Michael Kors brands — is off by 21%.
Crevoiserat — also a board member at auto giant General Motors — has had a long history in retail. Before her tenure at Tapestry, she served as chief operations officer at Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) and held senior leadership positions at Kohl’s (KSS), Walmart (WMT), and May Department Stores.
Her overhaul of Tapestry included selling off long-struggling shoe brand Stuart Weitzman, while abandoning a blockbuster deal with Capri Holdings amid regulatory pushback.
For its recent fiscal second quarter, Tapestry’s net sales reached $2.5 billion, a 14% increase over the previous year. This was driven primarily by the Coach brand, which saw revenue surge 25% to $2.14 billion. Profits also significantly outpaced Wall Street expectations, with adjusted earnings per share (EPS) climbing 34% to $2.69.
The company reported a successful holiday season and strong demand from Gen Z consumers, particularly in North America (+27%) and Greater China (+35%), where it gained market share despite broader headwinds in the luxury sector.
Tapestry raised its full fiscal year outlook, expecting to deliver over 25% EPS growth.
