American retail company
This article is about the retail company. For the retailer, see Bath & Body Works.
Public
NYSE: BBWI
S&P 500 component
Retailing
1963; 60 years ago (1963)
Les Wexner
Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
Gina Boswell (CEO)
Clothing, fashion accessory
US$11.84 billion (2021)
US$1.58 billion (2021)
US$844 million (2021)
US$11.57 billion (2021)
–US$662 million (2021)
57,200 (2023)
Bath & Body Works
www.bbwinc.com
Bath & Body Works, Inc. (formerly known as L Brands, Inc., Limited Brands, Inc. and The Limited, Inc.) is an American specialty retail company based in Columbus, Ohio. It owns Bath & Body Works, posted $11.9 billion in revenue in 2021, and was listed as 248 on the 2020 Fortune 500 list of largest United States companies by revenue.
In February 2020, L Brands announced the planned sale of its Victoria\'s Secret division to Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm. Under the agreement, Sycamore Partners would gain a 55% controlling stake in Victoria\'s Secret while L Brands would keep a 45% stake, leaving Bath & Body Works to become L Brand\'s sole business. The sale fell through in May 2020, although CEO Les Wexner did step down as planned, and was succeeded by Andrew Meslow. Gina Boswell was appointed the new CEO effective December 1, 2022, replacing Andrew Meslow who stepped down in May 2022. She replaced the interim CEO, Sarah Nash.
In March 2021, L Brands announced it would spin off Victoria\'s Secret as a stand-alone publicly traded company, and then change its name to Bath & Body Works, Inc. As of August 3, 2021, the separation was complete, and Bath and Body Works stock started trading under the ticker symbol \"BBWI\".
The 1980s started a string of acquisitions. In 1982, the Victoria\'s Secret brand, store, and catalogue were purchased from Roy Raymond for $1 million. Also in 1982, 207 Lane Bryant stores were purchased. In 1985, the exclusive Henri Bendel store on Fifth Avenue in New York City was purchased for $10 million and 798 Lerner stores for $297 million. Finally, in 1988, 25 Abercrombie & Fitch stores were purchased for $46 million. In 1996, The Limited ended its ownership of the A&F brand; it was spun off into a publicly traded company.
The 1990s saw initial development of the Limited Too, Bath & Body Works, Structure, and Victoria\'s Secret Beauty.
In 1998, several Bath & Body Works stores were converted to The White Barn Candle Company stores to begin a home fragrance brand.
In 2005, Limited Brands purchased home fragrance manufacturer Slatkin & Company.
Divestitures
On August 3, 2007, Limited Brands sold 75% ownership of its flagship The Limited chain to buyout firm Sun Capital Partners, Inc. In 2010, the remaining 25% of shares were also purchased by Sun Capital. Stefan M. Selig from Bank of America was involved in these deals. Following the sale of their namesake store, Limited Brands changed their company name to L Brands, as per the terms of the sale. On January 7, 2017, The Limited closed all of its stores in the United States. The web retail operation, thelimited.com, was initially continued for business and shipping nationwide. Despite this, The Limited online soon filed for bankruptcy and discontinued all services. However, the brand was revived in mid-2017 by Sycamore Partners subsidiary Belk and Limited-branded merchandise became available on its website.
On February 20, 2020, L Brands announced that it would sell its Victoria\'s Secret division to Sycamore Partners, private equity firm. Under the agreement, Sycamore Partners would gain a 55% controlling stake in Victoria\'s Secret for about $525 million. L Brands would keep a 45% stake. leaving Bath & Body Works to potentially become L Brand\'s sole business. L Brands also announced that CEO Leslie Wexner was stepping down. On May 4, 2020, L Brands and Sycamore Partners announced a \"mutual termination\" of their deal, and settlement of related litigation.
At the May 14, 2020 virtual shareholders meeting, L Brands founder, CEO and board chair Les Wexner stepped down, Bath & Body Works CEO Andrew Meslow moved up to become CEO of L Brands and joined the board, and three directors stepped down. The company announced it would go forward with a spin-off of Victoria\'s Secret as a stand-alone company. It also announced it would close 250 Victoria\'s Secret Stores and 50 Bath and Body Works stores.
On September 14, 2020, L Brands announced that it would sell its majority stake in its Victoria\'s Secret UK business to Next Plc under a newly formed joint venture. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
In 2021, L Brands announced Victoria\'s Secret and Bath & Body Works had been recast into two separate Publicly Traded Companies, expected to be completed by August. The Current L Brands CEO Andrew Meslow will be the head of Bath & Body Works while Martin Waters will be the head of Victoria\'s Secret after the split
On August 3, 2022, The Columbus-based retailer has officially split into two companies — Victoria\'s Secret and Bath & Body Works. The split went into effect Monday, and the companies began trading individually on the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday morning. L Brands decided in May to move ahead with a split after initially deciding to sell a 55% stake in Victoria\'s Secret for $500 million in February 2020. That deal was called off because of the pandemic. The name L Brands is no longer used as the name changed to Bath & Body Works Inc.
Brands
L Brands once operated the following retail brands:
Bath & Body Works - L Brands changed its name to Bath & Body Works Inc.
Former brands
Previous brands that were spun off include:
Lane Bryant – sold in 2001 to Charming Shoppes
Abercrombie & Fitch – acquired by The Limited in 1988 and went public as NYSE: ANF in 1996
Lerner New York – sold and became New York and Company
The Limited Too – spun off in 1999 and re-branded as Justice
Galyan\'s T– merged with Victoria\'s Secret Beauty
Express – on May 15, 2007, Limited Brands sold a 75% stake in Express to Golden Gate Capital Partners
The Limited – on August 3, 2007, Limited Brands transferred 75% ownership of its flagship The Limited chain to buyout firm Sun Capital Partners Inc.; in 2010, Sun Capital purchased the remaining shares.
La Senza - sold to Regent in January 2019
Victoria\'s Secret- on August 3, 2022, The Columbus-based retailer officially split into its own company
Pink - on August 3, 2022, the company split into its own company under Victoria\'s Secret
Brands that ceased operations:
Henri Bendel (closed in January 2019)
