Is The Lululemon Founder Angry And Shelled Just Because Of His Pride?

Chip Wilson, the founder and largest shareholder of the Lululemon Athletica Inc. manufacturer, was released by the board of directors at its annual shareholders' meeting today. It published an open letter and even set up a special website to bombard Lululemon Athletica Inc..

Chip Wilson, which founded Lululemon Athletica Inc. in Vancouver in 1998, has completely withdrawn from the group at the beginning of last year, but he still keeps Lululemon Athletica Inc. close to 14.2% stake in his family clothing.

In an open letter to Lululemon Athletica Inc. shareholders, Chip Wilson supports the view that the group has "lost its way" and is in urgent need of new policies to reform from the three aspects of the group's share price performance, financial performance, management and board of directors.

Chip Wilson criticized Lululemon Athletica Inc. for failing to keep pace with the growth of the two major competitors of Nike Inc. (NYSE:NKE) Nike group and Under Armour Inc. (Under), and the group's "creating" global leisure sportswear market, which has been continuously grabbed by market share by hand, and this is a period of "the most significant change in the way people wear in world history".

In fact, it is during this period that many

Brand oriented sports apparel brands have sprung up like mushrooms. These rising stars of all grades are not afraid of the group's eating.

Charts from Chip Wilson show that although the CEO's Laurent Potdevin has increased over 50% from the 1 billion 370 million US dollars to 2 billion 61 million US dollars since its taking office in December 2013 after the recall of pparent yoga pants, its operating profit and net profit have shrunk, and these two profit indicators have fallen 5.1% and 1.8% respectively compared with three years ago.

This also led to a slow rise in the share price of Lululemon Athletica Inc.. Since 2013, the price of Under Armour Inc. and Nike Inc. has surged by 79% and 45% respectively, driven by strong performance. In contrast, Lululemon Athletica Inc. fell 8%, or even lost 16% of the S & P 500 index.

However, since 2016, Lululemon Athletica Inc. has recovered some of its land lost. As of Wednesday, the stock has risen by more than 28%, while Under Armour Inc. and Nike Inc. have fallen by about 13% respectively.

Chip Wilson said: "as a long-term investor in Lululemon, I feel uneasy about our strong group's lack of urgency, management and performance."

He also believes that the current board and management must clearly elaborate and implement a plan that will enable the group to regain competitive advantage and profit growth, and they need to take responsibility.

Chip Wilson believes that the current system is deeply rooted in the board and management. Only three members of the board are Kathryn Henry, Jon McNeil and Robert Bensoussan.

Chip Wilson expressed the hope that a brand-new board of directors could be seen in 2017.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. responded swiftly, pointing out

After he left the board of directors, he did not participate in the group business. He also believed that the strong performance of the group proved that he had the appropriate board members and leadership team. Their deep professional skills were enough to support the group's implementation of its five-year plan. Such a solid foundation also enabled the group to continue to innovate and make long-term sustainable growth for all shareholders.

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In fact, Chip Wilson has been right after the recall of pparent yoga pants.

Extremely dissatisfied with the board.

In early 2012, he had withdrawn from daily management. He resigned from the independent executive chairman of the board at the end of 2013 because of his improper remarks on discrimination against women. At that time, he also sought to recruit private equity partners to privatize Lululemon Athletica Inc..

However, in August 2014, after the board fought and sold 13.85% of the group shares to the private equity fund Advent International at a price of 845 million US dollars, Chip Wilson sprouted from the group completely.

In July of that year, his wife and son set up a new clothing brand Kit&Ace, Lululemon Athletica Inc. board of directors considered that there was a competition relationship between them. Finally, Chip Wilson announced its withdrawal from the board of directors in February 2015.

Chip Wilson is Frank that he can't buy the Lululemon Athletica Inc., which has a market value of nearly $9 billion 300 million. According to the Forbes rich list, his fortune is about $2 billion 300 million.

He also said he would never return to the current management team.

But when he accepted the CNBC interview, he revealed that if the board structure changed, he would like to serve as a consultant to the group, also known as Lululemon Athletica Inc. as his "child".

Lululemon Athletica Inc. declined to comment on the possibility.

Lululemon Athletica Inc. will release its first quarter of fiscal year 2016 next week.

Data show that the Group expects a quarterly earnings of $0.28-0.30 per diluted share, far less than the market expected $0.37, and the revenue outlook of 4.83-4.88 billion reached 486 million 100 thousand dollars in the market expectations.

The annual diluted earnings per share are expected to be US $2.05-2.15, and revenue is expected to be 22.9-23.4 billion. The market forecasts are US $2.16 and US $2 billion 320 million respectively.

The same store sales fixed exchange rates for the first quarter and the whole year are expected to grow by a median figure.