The Secret Of Vitoria: The Billionaire Behind The Underwear Tycoon

Leslie (Les) did not seem to care about the irony. He made Vitoria's Victoria s Secret, Pink, Express and The Limited become the branded retail brands in the history of the United States of America, Wexner.

The billionaire who relied on his own power to change the way Americans shopped had a secret room, almost as mysterious as him. In the corner of Columbo, Ohio, opposite to a garbage dump, there was an inconspicuous office building with a sign "do not enter" on the security door. Although the public space is full of pink walls, lace on underwear, the big screen on the wall is still full of almost naked supermodel videos, but the interior room is full of folders and paper. It seems to be from the Disney The Absent-Minded Professor. Almost every plane is filled with things - a 3 foot pencil here, a Monopoly board over there, or a pile of books.

"The king of the show," Les wicks, is at the headquarters of Columbo, capital of Ohio, USA.

Leslie (Les) did not seem to care about the irony. He made Vitoria's Victoria s Secret, Pink, Express and The Limited become the branded retail brands in the history of the United States of America, Wexner. "When I was a child and the first shop was not open yet, they were saying that shops were like theaters, and retail was the drama of performance. Until now, it is still the case, "said the 77 year old man, dressed in gray casual pants and blue Oxford shoes, dressed in casual clothes." retail is a form of entertainment in the form of free. "

However, the "theater manager" always avoids flash. He is the chief executive of a large listed company, but rarely speaks at the earnings call conference. He is a legend in the industry but hardly ever faces the media. WNx is so elusive that most people think that Vitoria's Secret think tanks are either visionary women, such as Sara Blakely or Tory Burch, or Sarah Blakley Tory.

In reality, WNx has a net asset value of US $6 billion 200 million, which is enough to make him rank the eightieth in Forbes's 400 richest list. But in fact, he is a self-examination man who has been relentlessly reflecting on his every move for decades. His success in business owes to his uncontrollable uneasiness and discontent, which drove him to open up a new path. His early vision was at the peak of the Department Store era, when he focused his energies on a few product lines (The Limited). When the retail store is just looking at the region, he has expanded the store to the United States. While most competitors are embracing overseas markets, he sticks to the domestic market. His biggest achievement is that he has rebuilt the healthy image of underwear brands. Underwear is no longer a proprietary item in boudoir and strip show, but in the form of underwear store, it appears in shopping center with food court and multifunctional cinema.

It is not easy to make a long run against people. At the age of 26, wicks, who had just opened their first store, woke up screaming every night. By the age of more than 30, he was an anxious millionaire. He wanted to find more goals than to add more zeros at the end of the asset figures. Qian Lai is easier than his sense of achievement. After over half a year, he has owned more than ten enterprises, of which five sales have reached 1 billion dollars or more. But with his personality, he began to think he was wrong. From 1998 to 2007, he broke down and sold The Limited, Limited Too, Abercrombie & Fitch, Express, Lane Bryant and Lerner New and other brands, leaving only the secret of Vitoria. He bet that in the increasingly homogeneous clothing field, the sympathy of Wei's secret will bring higher profit value.

"I'm afraid of the fear that has not been thought or realized when the idea is wrong." Said wicks.

At present, wicks has only three underwear brands -- Vitoria's secret, Pink and Na Shengsha (La Senza). In the underwear market with a total size of US $13 billion 200 million, the three brands accounted for 41% of the total. And only 1% of their competitors share market share. Bath, the world's largest beauty product retail brand, is also a member of Body Works. All of these brands are owned by their thriving parent company, L Brands.

L Brands's 2949 wholly-owned stores sell more than 11 billion of bra, women's underwear, soap and other similar products every year. dollar 。 In the past 19 quarters, the same store sales in each quarter have increased. Excellent marketing, especially the annual Victoria s Secret Fashion Show, has contributed to the success of the company. "S" But in this era of e-commerce that lacks substance, intimate customer service is equally important. Customers can buy high-quality T-shirts and trousers from various online stores and physical stores, but the bra is different. 80% of women wear bra sizes in the United States. The computer can not measure whether the bra fits well, nor does the staff of retailers such as Taghit (Target) help customers measure their sizes. But the employees of Vitoria's Victoria s Secret will, so the female customers will repay the company with loyalty. 99% of L Brands stores realized profits in 2013, while Vitoria's Secret operating margin reached 17%, three times the average of the industry. Despite the boom in e-commerce, Wei Nai opened 50 new stores last year. His online business is not the focus, but it does well, with annual sales of $1 billion 500 million.

These figures have been transformed into huge returns in the stock market. L Brands's share price rose 11% last year, or two times the S&P retail index. In the past five years, the share price of L Brands has risen by nearly 500%. Gain Almost any retailer in North America (except sporting goods manufacturer Under Armour and garment manufacturer [G-III Apparel]). "Their performance is amazing. They are the masters of the market." Paul Rojas, a retail analyst at Wells Fargo, said: "I can't imagine that there are companies that are more successful than them," said Paul Lejuez.

Outside the United States, there are hundreds of millions of people waiting for wessnye. The secret of Vitoria has been well known all over the world, not because of its stores, but because of the exposed models. They come from all continents except Antarctica. Viewers in 192 countries worldwide watch Vitoria's Secret Fashion Show on television.

However, Wei Nai Nai basically has not begun to expand the pace of the store in the world. "Our focus is on the domestic market, but we can expect that the international market will also be very large, even larger than the domestic market." Wicks said. In 2012, the secret of Vitoria began to expand its wholly-owned stores to outside North America, first opening two stores in London, England. After that, five stores were opened in the UK, and the total revenue of these stores exceeded 100 million US dollars.

Through the new franchise mode, Wescoe also brought the brand to Asia and the Middle East. This mode is for L Brands. almost It's zero risk. There are more than 600 franchises in the world. L Brands does not need to invest in stores, and it can guarantee profits almost from the first day of opening, and extract a high concession tax of 10% to 15%. One of the opportunities is that Wendall is preparing to move Vitoria's Secret Fashion Show abroad in London in December this year. "Their international expansion is just the tip of the iceberg." Matthew McClintock McClintock, a retail analyst at Barclays, said he expects overseas business to reach $10 billion in ten years. "This is a gold mine."

It was his self reflective questioning that first brought him into retail. After earning an undergraduate degree in Ohio State in 1959, he dropped out of law school and went back to his hometown to help him in a small shop run by his family. The shop was named after him, called Leslie's s (Leslie Leslie). When father went out on vacation, wicks Nai began to think of a mystery: his father worked so hard, but he never made money. He found a pile of invoices and began calculating the cost and profit of each item on a waste paper.

His calculation drew a conclusion which was contrary to intuition. Although these high priced dresses and coats seem to have a high profit margin, they are actually hard to sell, so they hardly make money. All the profits in the shop come from products that look less attractive, such as shirts and trousers. When Wei Nai's parents came home, they found that their son, a young man who had little professional experience, could speak better than his parents. Wei Nai suggested that his father give up his sales coat and replace it with more ladies' shirts and trousers. His father's response was to persuade him to find a job.

He did so. In 1963, he borrowed 5000 dollars from his relatives and opened a clothing store to compete with his father's shop. The clothes in his shop are carefully selected, and the products are very limited - only the shirts and trousers that are shipped very fast, then named The Limited. Before he opened the first store, he had rented second stores. He believed that if the idea of the first clothing store worked, others would be successful too. When a shirt was not sold, he owed the landlord 1 million dollars.