Victoria’s Secret CEO Amy Hauk to exit after just 8 months, stock plummets

Victoria’s Secret brand CEO Amy Hauk will resign after just eight months running the lingerie giant, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

Hauk, whose resignation goes into effect on March 31, will also relinquish her duties as brand CEO of PINK, the sister company which sells clothing geared toward teens.

News of Hauk’s departure sent shares of parent company Victoria’s Secret & Co. (VSCO) tumbling around 8%.

“Amy Hauk will be stepping down as CEO of Victoria’s Secret and PINK in order to spend more time with her family in Florida,” the company said in a statement.  

Hauk, 56, will be replaced by longtime executive Martin Walters, who will continue in his role as CEO of Victoria’s Secret & Co.

In 2021, VSCO became a publicly traded company after it was spun off from L Brands, which also owned Bath & Body Works.

Hauk, who worked for L Brands since 2008, took over PINK in 2018 and was elevated to brand CEO at Victoria’s Secret last July.

The Post reached out to Victoria’s Secret for comment.

The Ohio-based conglomerate also announced on Tuesday that it had completed its $400 million acquisition of Adore Me, the New York City-based direct-to-consumer lingerie startup.

Adore Me, which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary, bills itself as “the first lingerie brand to offer extended sizing across a wide range of styles and categories.”

Victoria’s Secret hopes the acquisition of Adore Me will boost earnings and cash flow in the new year.

Sales for the parent company fell 8.5% in the third quarter year-over-year due to lagging activity in its North American stores.

Victoria’s Secret & Co. also reported 29 cents in earnings per share, which beat estimates but was still well below the 81 cents that was reported in the third quarter of the previous year.

In the last 12 months, Victoria’s Secret & Co.’s stock price has fallen around 40% — outpacing the S&P 500’s decline of around 20%.

Victoria’s Secret is striving to regain its once-dominant position in the women’s intimate retail space.

The company, which generated north of $7.7 billion in annual sales in the early to mid-2000s, has been slow to adapt to the changing tastes of consumers who prefer “body-positive” products, critics charge.

At the peak of its powers, Victoria’s Secret owned more than a third of market share in the women’s lingerie category. By 2018, its market share was at around 24%.

The company suffered a further hit to its reputation after it was learned that Leslie Wexner, the billionaire entrepreneur who is credited with building Victoria’s Secret into a behemoth, shared close ties with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The brand, which was once known for promoting its waif-thin supermodel “Angels,” introduced plus-size additions to its catalog in recent years in hopes of keeping up with current trends.

Last July, the firm laid off 160 management-level employees whose jobs were based at its corporate headquarters.