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Marie Leblanc is stepping down as CEO of Victoria Beckham after five years in the role, during which she steered the brand’s blue-chip luxury repositioning. Chairman Ralph Toledano will act as interim CEO until the company names a successor.
Leblanc joined as product director in 2018, coming off of product development and merchandising roles at Printemps, Celine and Sonia Rykiel. She became CEO in September 2019 and helped to overhaul the Victoria Beckham brand by switching up its design team (with the goal of capturing younger consumers), reviewing the brand’s operations and end-to-end processes, and fixing supply chain efficiencies due to Brexit’s impact — steering it towards profitability. “Building a profitable business is at the core of our thinking,” she told Vogue Business in 2022, ahead of the brand’s Paris Fashion Week debut.
In August, the brand said its loss before tax narrowed to £2.9 million in fiscal 2023 from £3.1 million the year prior, while revenues were up over 50 per cent to £89.1 million. Leblanc told the Financial Times in January that the goal is to reach revenues of £100 million in the next three years as it vies to become a global fashion house. The plan is to solidify the brand’s presence in the UK, the US and Europe while expanding further into Asia and the Middle East.
In August, Netflix announced a forthcoming documentary series focused on founder and creative director Victoria Beckham’s fashion and beauty business. It follows a warm reception to the 2023 documentary series featuring her husband, David Beckham, in which Victoria appeared with viral one-liners.
Leblanc plans to return from London to her home in France and spend time with her family. “I am very grateful to Victoria, the board and our chairman, Ralph Toledano, for the opportunity to lead the company as CEO during the last five years. Together, we have crafted a full new brand value proposition and turned around the business,” she said in a statement.
“Marie has been the most incredible partner and CEO these past five years, and I am so grateful to have had such a strong, intelligent and inspiring woman by my side,” Beckham said in a statement. “We have been through an incredible journey together; fighting fires side by side, exchanging passionately about design and product, and never losing sight of our common goal — to build a beautiful brand and a profitable business.”
“The turnaround of the brand is excellent, the acceleration has started and the brand has become very desirable,” said David Belhassen, founder and managing partner of Neo Investments (which invested £30 million in Victoria Beckham in 2017), in the release. “We can now take off.”
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