BBWI: More on Upcoming Newness; Hilary Duff Partnership Shows BBWI's New Direction—Reiterating OW

Research evidence excerpt

BBWI: More on Upcoming Newness; Hilary Duff Partnership Shows BBWI's New Direction—Reiterating OW

Retailing, Specialty Softlines, and E-commerce Equity Research

Investment Thesis

1. New Management Leading an Acceleration in "Transformative Change." In May 2025, BBWI

announced CEO Boswell would be replaced by Daniel Heaf, effective immediately. Heaf has a

compelling history with global brands, previously at Nike for 6+ years—most recently NKE's

Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer—while also spending 4+ years at Burberry prior.

While BBWI's strategies have begun to take hold over the past 6-9 months, BBWI's Board has

commented it is always reviewing performance against leadership, and felt it was time for change

—with BBWI focusing on catalyzing strategy and reaching their consumer—as the Board views it

is currently under-invested globally and not innovating fast enough. We view this more rigorous

focus on the global business and innovation as key to the turnaround story—with seasoned leader

Heaf (who worked with 40+ countries during his time at Nike/Burberry) positioned to accelerate

BBWI's turnaround.

2. A New Strategic Vision Laid Out. With new CEO Heaf now in place for 12 months, BBWI

identified the key areas of concern and how to address them in November 2025 by laying out

a new strategic plan, "The Consumer First Formula," with four key pillars: 1) create disruptive &

innovative products - with investments funneled into core products, away from adjacencies, 2)

reignite the brand - with investments in digital marketing + new customer growth, 3) win in the

marketplace - AMZN store opening in 1H26 and 4) operate with speed & efficiency - $250M of

savings targeted, to be reinvested in rev-generating activities. The plan aims to return the core to