Kohl's CEO Michelle Gass to step down, join Levi Strauss as CEO in waiting

[BumRushDaShow]

Last edited Tue Nov 8, 2022, 11:24 AM - Edit history (2)

Source: CNBC

Kohl’s said Tuesday that CEO Michelle Gass is leaving for a new opportunity after the retailer came under pressure to shake up its leadership. In a separate release, Levi Strauss & Co. said Gass will join the company in early January as president and step into the role of CEO within the next 18 months, succeeding Chip Bergh. Shares of Kohl’s were up about 8% in morning trading. Shares of Levi’s were down about 2%.

Kohl’s — and Gass — have faced scrutiny and skepticism from investors, as the retailer invested in refreshing its brand and reported lackluster sales results. Activist investor Ancora Holdings has pushed Kohl’s to remove Gass from the position. Another activist investor, Macellum Advisors, also urged a change in leadership, including an ouster of the company’s chairman.

The calls for a shakeup intensified after Kohl’s ended talks this summer to sell to the Franchise Group, owner of The Vitamin Shoppe, sending its stock plummeting.

On Tuesday, Kohl’s said Tom Kingsbury, a Kohl’s director, will serve as interim CEO as it searches for a permanent leader. The leadership change will take effect on Dec. 2.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/08/kohls-ceo-michelle-gass-to-step-down.html

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Article updated. Previous article -

Kohl's said Tuesday that CEO Michelle Gass is leaving the company for a new opportunity as its sales continue to fall. In a separate release, Levi Strauss & Co. said Gass will join the company in early January as president and step into the role of CEO within the next 18 months. She will succeed the company's CEO Chip Bergh.

Kohl's also announced preliminary third quarter results. It said it anticipates comparable sales to be down 6.9% in the three-month period ended Oct. 29, with net sales down 7.2%, from a year ago. The company plans to release its full quarterly results on Nov. 17.

Shares of Kohl's were up about 9% in premarket trading. Shares of Levi's were down about 1% in premarket trading.

Kohl's -- and Gass -- have been under pressure from investors. Activist investor Ancora Holdings has pushed the company to remove Gass from the position. Its push for new leadership intensified after Kohl's terminated talks this summer to sell to the Franchise Group, owner of The Vitamin Shoppe.

Original article/headline -

Kohl's CEO Michelle Gass to step down next month

Kohl's said Tuesday that CEO Michelle Gass is leaving the company for a new opportunity.

The retailer also announced preliminary third quarter results. It said comparable sales fell 6.9% in the period, with net sales down 7.2%, from a year ago.

Shares rose about 12% in premarket trading after Kohl's announced the news.

Kohl's said the leadership change will take effect on Dec. 2. The board appointed Tom Kingsbury, a Kohl's director since last year, to serve as interim CEO.



This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

[SheltieLover]

1. I hope Kohl's survives!

I love that store, although I'm not much of a shopper.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. It is one of my sisters' favorite stores

and she knew how to work the "Kohl's cash" and all the stacked discounts.

I know I have a pile of stuff here from Kohls.

[SheltieLover]

7. I do too!

Haha! Your sister sounds like a master shopper.

When I was working, I'd go in twice/yr, grab stuff off racks & wa-la, new wardrobe.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. I would get their mailers and emails and would order online

and they were always quick to deliver. My sister was also in the one near her all the time because they had an agreement with Amazon to take those returns.

There is one store not far from me but I haven't had chance to drive over there very often (and keep forgetting it's there ).

Kohl's and a local PA department store chain - Boscov's - are what I primarily use.

[luvs2sing]

2. Kohls used to be my go-to for work clothes.

I haven’t shopped there in years because their stores, at least the ones in my area, are a jumbled, disorganized, cluttered hot mess.

[zeusdogmom]

5. Same in my area

Can’t stand shopping in a messy store. And it isn't only Kohls. Macy’s is even worse than Kohls. I’ve worked major retail including Kohls - I know what it takes to keep things neat and tidy and most of all organized! Imagine the lingerie dept with the multitude of styles, sizes, colors. 😬. It would help immensely if shoppers were more considerate and didn’t leave stuff strewn everywhere in the dressing rooms

[FakeNoose]

3. I think Kohl's is one of our better department stores in the Pittsburgh area

If I need a dept. store I'll shop at Kohl's first before Macy's or any of the others.
Retail is having a tough time of it though, one hit after another.

[Wingus Dingus]

4. Kohl's is my main store for clothes, especially when I have

to find a dress or something. But yeah, as someone said above--they're starting to have a messy flea-market vibe to them, similar to the TJ Maxx in my area.

[aggiesal]

8. With everyone shopping on the internet ...

department stores are a dying breed.
Over the weekend I was looking to upgrade my monitor due to work requirements, and the only electronics store I found where I can see monitors was Best Buy.
I don't shop at Walmart. Target and Costco have slim pickings with monitors.

Now I'm forced to used the internet.
Local electronic stores are non-existent, so wherever I purchase the monitor the money will head out of town.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Most of my Kohls purchases have been from their online store

I think once you know your size and brands you want, it's so much easier to get the style and colors and sizes by ordering online.

So many times I have wasted hours wandering through the actual store and can't find the item or the color I want is not being stocked by that particular store, despite it being an option in their sales advertisements. I.e., we have been conditioned to having a lot more "choice" than in the past, so there is an expectation to have what you want immediately available when you walk in a store. The reality is that this is a pipe dream.

[aggiesal]

12. Yup and when all the stores close, ...

and you need something for an emergency there won't be a local store to buy from.

It will happen.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Well thanks to Amazon

the latest "business model" is having "same day delivery" (I think Walmart has started doing that).

As we go through over a century of the transition of ways to shop, we have shifted from the suit and dress "boutiques" (with seamstress and tailors and shoemakers and millineries and whatnot), to the "department store" (which ran side-by-side with "catalog shopping" brought to you by Sears).

That model then transitioned to the "the mall", which itself is collapsing, and in some locales, has started a trend back to some smaller "boutiques" but also what amounts to the "electronic" version of Sears (which is why many have noted how Sears missed the boat with transitioning their famous catalog and warehouse shipping to online, and that tech was instead picked up by Amazon, just like how Sony missed the boat for portable music having spearheaded the "Walkman", but was instead beat out by Apple and the ipod, when it came to selling and playing portable but now "digital" music).

[aggiesal]

14. And all that Amazon money heads out of town. ...

Big huge shopping malls are having issues because nobody shops locally.
And the Amazon "Same Day Delivery" only works when you order early enough.

What happens when your daughter has a dance recital at 5 pm. and you find out at 4 pm, that her leotard is ripped?
Then you find out that the local dance store closed its doors?

Or you find out that your child's cracked batting helmet can't be used in the local tournament, and you find out that the local baseball/softball store has closed it's doors and the corporate sporting goods store doesn't have the size or color needed?

I can come up with all kinds of examples where the Amazons and/or Walmarts of the world can not compensate for having a local store available when these emergencies occur.
Yet we are now being forced to shop online, like my example of trying to upgrade my monitor.

And I'll reiterate, all that money to Amazon & Walmart heads out of town and makes the Bezos' and Walton family that much richer.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. You are preaching to the choir

But I will say that a whole pile of little businesses had signed on to use Amazon and there are certain products (particularly cooking items and ingredients) that just are not available here. There were even some small distributors who jumped on that bandwagon hailing out of PA. Of course Bezos got rich because the company takes a cut.

And I know about your example because one of my nieces used to be in a tap class when she was young and trying to find the right tap shoes in her size was a pain. And one year, her group was performing in front of the Art Museum at the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Parade, which is a big deal since it is the oldest in the nation. But luckily there was a small dance shop in a town just outside the city and not far from where my sister lives, that sold leotards and other dance outfits, shoes (including pointes and taps), and miscellaneous accessories.

But what often kills those little stores is not Amazon, but real estate vultures who increasingly raise the storefront rents and drives them out of business so they can put someone else in there. And if they try to hang on, they are forced to move further away from their regular customer base.

[aggiesal]

16. I agree about the little stores being pushed out by real estate vultures ...

but I've also seen Walmart kill community stores, then kill the community itself by closing the Walmart store that killed the community stores.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. We never got any Walmarts here in Philly until "late" in their expansion plans

The first time I had actually gone into one was back in the early '90s in Fairfax, VA while on a work training trip and there were none in the city of Philadelphia at that time. The first one opened here in 1995 and there are currently only 3 in the entire city of 1.6 million. The rest are out in the suburbs and across the river in Jersey.

We already had a myriad of local discount chains here like Clover (a subsidiary of the old Strawbridge and Clothier department store), Caldor (another local discount store, the building of which eventually became a suburban Walmart), and Korvettes. This was in addition to the old Woolworth'ss 5 & 10. All of those stores are now gone.

So we were never a "Walmart" city.

[peppertree]

11. Do nothing but show up (sometimes), and you're set for life

What a gass.

[jmowreader]

18. The local Kohl's is generally the LAST place I look for anything

I think I've actually come out of that place with purchased goods maybe three times. And two of them were t-shirts I needed for a trip I was taking. The other was when I was getting ready to photograph the Philadelphia Thanksgiving parade, and the group I was working with wanted me to dress in black slacks and a white shirt. (On the day of the parade, the white shirt was buried under a huge parka. But that's okay because a lot of the marchers were relying on pantyhose and makeup to stay warm. I think I came off the better of that deal.)

A couple months ago I needed a black skirt - sometimes I wear one just to piss the local Trumpists off. I go into Kohl's, who should have had them, and asked for a basic black knee-length business skirt. "Oh, we don't carry anything like that." Hang on...you mean professional women working in this area don't wear business attire to work?

[NullTuples]

19. I've never understood when corps *want* a CEO with a recent history of failing

It seems to happen frequently; a corporation is struggling, has several years of decline...and the CEO gets hired away by a corporation that thinks...he or she will be much more effective for them despite being in similar markets?

[BumRushDaShow]

20. I think a lot of it

is because whoever they pick has a "track record" (good or bad) and doesn't need to be "trained". So they become a placeholder (or a scoop of mortar slapped into a hole of a leaky dike) to calm the investors. They would probably be given 3 years to sink or swim and if they sink, on to someplace else they go.

[NullTuples]

21. So their job is really just, "ultimate salesperson"?

[BumRushDaShow]

22. At that level

yes. "Sales and Marketing" and they do that with themselves as they move from gig to gig to gig.

Perfect example - I remember streaming the big hoo-ha introduction of Carly Fiorina as CEO of HP a couple years before they merged with Compaq. She had come over from AT&T/Lucent. She eventually blew up the company and and was forced out, but got the "golden parachute" to tide her over while she "marketed" herself to other smaller tech companies before getting involved in politics.

(ETA - she had run against Barbara Boxer for Senate in CA back during her political attempts).

They must move from place to place to stay relevant. Rolling stones gathering no moss.