John Idol is taking on a familiar role — chief executive officer of Michael Kors.
Idol previously ran Michael Kors through a major growth spurt as the brand transformed from small designer to a publicly traded force in the accessible luxury handbag market.
Now he’s taking direct control of a business in the midst of a major turnaround, while keeping his day job as chairman and CEO of parent company Capri Holdings, which also owns Versace and Jimmy Choo.
Cedric Wilmotte, who had been CEO of Michael Kors since April 2023, will leave the company after 16 years.
Stepping up in the changeover is Philippa Newman, who was promoted to chief product officer of Michael Kors.
Newman has been with the brand for 14 years, rising to president of accessories and footwear. In her new gig she will report to Idol and work alongside chief creative officer Michael Kors overseeing licensing and design for all product categories.
The C-suite revamp comes as Capri scrambles to set its business right after a long wait on the sidelines.
In August 2023, Capri agreed to an $8.5 billion buyout by Coach-parent Tapestry Inc. that would have created a powerhouse in the accessible luxury handbag space.
Too much of a powerhouse in the opinion of the Federal Trade Commission, which sued to stop the deal and won a preliminary injunction that was enough to nix the transaction.
As the case wound its way through court, the Michael Kors business suffered mightily, with revenues down 15.2 percent to $1.4 billion in the first half.
Earlier this month, Idol laid out plans to rejuvenate the business, acknowledging the brand had “attempted to elevate price points too quickly over the last two years” while “injecting too much fashion for our core consumer.”
Michael Kors is now looking to boost its marketing and rebuild its core, while closing about 75 of its 755 doors over the next two years.
On Tuesday, Idol said in a statement: “We are moving quickly to implement strategic initiatives to stabilize revenues and return to growth. This reorganization reinforces Michael Kors’ plans to engage and energize both new and loyal consumers, create exciting fashion and core products with compelling value, improve store productivity and return our wholesale business to growth.
“Philippa is a dynamic leader with an exceptional breadth of experience developing compelling product for our consumers,” Idol said. “I am confident that in her new role as chief product officer for Michael Kors she will successfully lead the execution of our product transformation strategy and drive growth for Michael Kors across all channels.”
Newman said the brand has both “strong brand equity and tremendous potential.”
“I am confident that by consolidating design, merchandising, production and licensing under a unified team we can more effectively execute our strategies, including delivering more targeted product to different consumer cohorts, in order to return Michael Kors to growth,” she said.
Even so, Michael Kors and Capri are in a precarious spot.
Investors appeared to approve of the CEO switch, pushing shares of the company up 3.5 percent to $22.30 in morning trading on Tuesday, but the stock is still way below the $57 per share price the Tapestry deal would have paid.
And Michael Kors isn’t the only division struggling.
Versace’s revenues fell 22.1 percent to $420 million in the first half, while Jimmy Choo held up better with a decline of just 0.6 percent to $313 million.
Analysts have speculated that Capri could sell off Versace, which has never lacked for suitors, and Jimmy Choo, while Michael Kors is viewed as a brand that could go private to work on its turnaround.
It’s a turnaround that’s been long underway.
Joshua Schulman was briefly CEO of Michael Kors and was supposed to take Idol’s spot as head of Capri, but instead left the company in early 2022 and is now leading Burberry’s transformation.
Idol stepped in as CEO of Michael Kors for about a year before handing the reins to Wilmotte.
It was a rocky start.
“When I joined, clearly the brand was very challenged,” Wilmotte testified in court in September.
Early in his tenure as CEO, Jefferies downgraded its rating on Capri stock to “hold” from “buy” and Wilmotte vented to his wife in an email that was shown in court.
“U.S. is a disaster and this is all because of JI trying to maintain top line with discounting all day long versus refocusing on creating brand heat,” Wilmotte wrote, with “JI” seemingly referring to John Idol.
Wilmotte said he was not pleased with the execution of the turnaround and that the brand’s initiatives were “stalling” due to budgetary concerns as the buyout loomed.
Now John Idol is back in the CEO spot and is looking to bring some of the old magic to bear.
