12. Limited Brands

Columbus, OH

www.limitedbrands.com

Corporate Sales: $10.5 billion

Beauty Sales: $3.2 billion (estimated) for home fragrance and personal care products.

Key Personnel: Leslie Wexner, chairman and chief executive officer; Nicholas Coe, president and chief executive officer, Bath & Body Works; Sharen J. Turney, president and chief executive officer, Victoria’s Secret.

Major Products: Bath & Body Works and Victoria’s Secret home fragrance, fine fragrance, personal care products and beauty products. Limited Brands also owns Victoria’s Secret Pink, La Senza and Henri Bendel.

New Products: Victoria’s Secret: Victoria by Victoria’s Secret, Bombshell, Bombshell Forever, Pink Fun & Fearless Hand & Body Cream, Victoria’s Secret Makeup Jet Setter Portable Makeup Kit. Bath & Body Works: Pure Paradise fragrances, Sweater Weather candles, C.O. Bigelow Chapped Hands Remedy, Dr. Patricia Wexler Intensive Night Reversal & Repair Cream.

Victoria by Victoria’s Secret launched this past summer; bows and ribbons make every bottle feel like a gift.

Comments: Net sales for Limited Brands reached $10.5 billion for the 53-week year ended Feb. 2, 2013 compared to $10. 4 billion for the 52 weeks ended Jan. 28, 2012. Corporate sales rose just 1% last year, but sales of Bath & Body Works increased 9%. B&BW sales were up across most categories, including Signature Collection, home fragrance and soaps and sanitizers. Bath & Body Works reported sales of $2.9 billion. Net sales for Victoria’s Secret were $4.98 billion. VS Direct brought in another $1.6 billion.

Limited Brands says its priority is in the domestic market, but “with our sights set on the global marketplace, the international business is a healthy addition to our U.S. business and a source for long-term growth.” There are now nearly 900 stores outside the U.S. Of these, 143 are Victoria’s Secret Beauty & Accessories, which are operated by franchise partners, and aimed at airport travellers. Bath & Body Works stores in Canada are owned and operated by Limited Brands, while stores operating in other parts of the world are franchised.

In 2012, Victoria’s Secret’s Angel won the Consumer’s Choice Fragrance Foundation Award, as well as Best Packaging in the Women’s Popular category.

For the second quarter 2013, the company reported net sales of $2.5 billion for the 13 weeks ended August 3, 2013, an increase of 5% compared to sales of $2.4 billion for the 13 weeks ended July 28, 2012.

Both Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works keep rolling out fragrance collections in covetable packaging. In 2013, first came Fabulous, followed by Bombshell Forever, which launched this past spring, and then Victoria by Victoria’s Secret during the summer. B&BW recently launched a collection called Aspen Caramel Woods. Be Enchanted, Black Amethyst and Paris Amour were other popular collections launched during the year.