Word: poloed
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...antique-laden Madison Avenue office, Ralph Lauren, 59, the most successful fashion designer in American history and CEO of Polo Ralph Lauren, leans forward on a worn leather armchair to tell how much it hurts--the negative reviews of his fall collections and the articles in the business press detailing his company's disappointing earnings and questioning whether Lauren has lost his touch. "I'm the guy who built this company with my bare hands. I've been a big hero in this industry, and I like being a big hero. When the stock goes down, I take it personally...
Lauren points to the Persian rug covering the floor, but what he is really doing is indicating the building, the company, the whole brand. "People are asking, Where's Polo going? Are they out of steam? Are they yesterday's news? Let me tell you something: this company is a great company, not was a great company...
...right. Polo Ralph Lauren remains perhaps the strongest combination of business and brand in all fashiondom. Lauren, born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx, conceived a vision of Waspy splendor and preppie elegance and then had the all-American gumption to go out and live that dream and project it in sepia tones around the world. He once sold his wares store to store in a bomber jacket and jeans, and leveraged a line of wide neckties into a wider life-style empire with annual revenues of $1.47 billion and profits of $120 million. Until this year, Polo/RL sported growth rates...
...wait for Lauren to take his company public, but at some level he must resent it. Since Polo/RL's initial public stock offering in June 1997, he has learned the hard way that the only trend that matters on the Street is the direction your earnings are going. And Polo's haven't been going in the preferred direction. Polo's net income has been down two of the past three quarters, and this year earnings growth is projected at an anemic 4.2%, well below 1998's sizzling 35%. The stock has had its price taken in, from the high...
...appease the Street's insatiable demand for growth, Polo last week bought Club Monaco for $81.5 million. What it got was a Canadian-based retailer that sold $90 million of designer-style (did somebody say Prada knock-off?) wear last year and has clout with the coveted youth market. And with only 13 stores in the U.S., Club Monaco has room to expand. Fashion insiders see Club Monaco as eventually becoming Ralph's stylish answer to the Gap and Banana Republic. What the purchase was not, Lauren insists, "is a mass-market answer to feed a starving stock...