Fashion retailer Esprit has appointed 56-year-old American Mark Daley as its new CEO. He has the difficult task of turning the tide.
Extensive experience
Daley has 30 years of experience in the retail industry and succeeds Anders Kristiansen. In recent years, he was CEO at Billy Reid, where he restructured and shaped a new strategic growth plan. Previously, Daley held various managerial positions at Augustinus Bader Group, Dean & Deluca and Ralph Lauren, among others.
In addition to the appointment of a new CEO, Esprit’s management has undergone several changes. For example, D. Wan Yung Ting has been appointed Chief Product Development Officer of the fashion company. Furthermore, several members of the board of directors have resigned, but some new members have also been appointed.
Daley is facing an extremely difficult assignment. Esprit has been working on a turnaround since 2018, but without much success. Partly due to the corona crisis, the German branch of the company had to ask for protection against creditors in the spring of this year. But what is really worrying is (the lack of) e-commerce: while almost all fashion brands grew online in the past year, Esprit’s internet sales fell by 9%.
