Fast Car Fuels $18.3 Million Lawsuit By Victoria’s Secret CEO
Like most retail businesses, Victoria’s Secret has a bare bones approach to remaining a top-contender in the women’s fashion and undergarment industry.
The Inquisitr writes about building a loyal customer base by listening to their consumers and responding. Recently, Victoria’s Secret met with stiff resistance over branding of their “Perfect Body” line of undergarments, and changed their entire marketing strategy to regain consumer confidence.
On a wing and a prayer, which included two $40,000 loans from the bank and family, Victoria’s Secret founder Roy Raymond launched the chain in California with his wife in 1977. The business made an impressive $500,000 in sales the first year, and Victoria’s Secret expanded to five stores with $4 million in retail and catalog sales by 1982.
The Huffington Post reports that Raymond sold the business to Limited founder Leslie Wexner for $1 million in 1982.
The New York Times wrote that Raymond tried in vain to open another chain of stores, My Child’s Destiny, which met with disaster and bankruptcy in 1986, and at the age of 47, the entrepreneur committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge in 1993.
The current owner of Victoria’s Secret, 77-year-old Leslie Wexner of Dayton, Ohio, is the son of Russian immigrants. Wexner is also the CEO and founder of L Brands Inc., which is the umbrella company of Victoria’s Secret, Pink, Bath & Body Works, La Senza, and Henri Bendel.
L Brands is an international company that sells lingerie, personal care and beauty products, apparel, and accessories through their 2,900 specialty stores, employs more than 94,000 associates, and generated $10.8 billion in sales in 2013. The slogan for L Brands is simple: We don’t sell products. We sell experience.
Everyone has their passion, and for billionaire Les Wexner, Ferraris set his world on fire. He currently owns about a dozen of these rare and beautiful automobiles.
The Daily Mail reports the CEO of Victoria’s Secret has a lawsuit in the works over a record-breaking purchase of a 1954 Ferrari 374-Plus. Wexner bought the Ferrari for $17.2 million at Bonhams auction house at this summer’s Goodwill Festival of Speed. Only five models of this car were built, and it is believed that parts of the original Ferrari were stolen in the 1980s from Ohio and shipped to Belgium.
The legal fight that has been ongoing across the Atlantic has kept true ownership of the vehicle in question for years, and it could be another decade before it all comes out in the wash. The Victoria Secret boss just wants to cancel the order and let everyone get on with their life. Failing that, his lawsuit also demands restitution for fees beyond the actual purchase price, bringing the suit to $18.3 million.
Representatives of the Bonham auction house state, “We are satisfied that any claim is wholly without merit and will be strongly contested.”
The Ferrari can zip from 0-60 in under four seconds and reach a top speed of 186 miles-per-hour at full throttle. One has to wonder if Mr. Wexner is trying to fly faster than his Victoria’s Secret Angels or join their ranks and become an Angel.
[Image by Getty]
