Stitch Fix Picks Macy’s Digital Chief Matt Baer for CEO
Stitch Fix’s search for a CEO is over.
The online personal style platform on Wednesday (June 14) announced it has named Matt Baer, former chief customer and digital officer at Macy’s, to serve as its new chief executive.
He replaces interim CEO Katrina Lake, the company’s founder, who will continue her role as executive chair of the Stitch Fix board.
“As someone with retail in my DNA, I’ve long admired what Katrina has built with Stitch Fix — fusing AI with stylists to offer the most convenient shopping experience out there today,” Baer said in a news release.
“People are looking for a better way to look and feel great. Stitch Fix is uniquely positioned to deliver that for them.”
Lake, who returned as CEO in January, said the board and Stitch Fix management team were impressed with Baer’s “experience across all areas of retail businesses and his ability to identify the interconnected opportunities to positively impact the experience of our clients.”
Stitch Fix replaced CEO Elizabeth Spaulding — who had held that post since 2021 — with Lake in January following months of declining sales. At the same time, the company also announced it was cutting a fifth of its salaried workers.
The company has since said it was considering exiting the British market as it rethinks its business, announcing that possibility in an earnings announcement last week.
Since entering the U.K. four years ago, “the macroeconomic environment and our business have changed,” Stitch Fix said in the announcement. “In addition to a strategic refocusing on our styling first business in the U.S., and despite ongoing efforts to control costs and increase efficiencies across the company, we have concluded the need to explore exiting the U.K. market in [fiscal year 20204].”
In addition, the company has said it will not renew the lease on its distribution center near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, when it expires later this year, and will shutter its Dallas distribution center next year.
“By moving to a three distribution center network, from our current five distribution center network, we will have greater depth and breadth of inventory available for our stylists to serve clients,” Stitch Fix said in the announcement.
Stitch Fix took in revenue of just under $395 million in the third quarter, which was at the high end of the company’s guidance range and down 20% from the same quarter in 2022. Also down was Stitch Fix’s active client base, which dropped 11% to 3.5 million.
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