Jewellery (jewelry)

By Whitney Beckett Aiming to get back on the growth track, Kenneth Cole Productions Inc. has poached Liz Claiborne Inc.?s Jill Granoff as chief executive officer.

Granoff, Claiborne?s executive vice president, direct brands, will take over day-to-day responsibilities for the 25-year-old Cole brand from Kenneth Cole, who will relinquish his career-long ceo title but will continue as chairman and chief creative officer.

?My strength is that of the creative force, whose background is in product and wholesale, while Jill is an operator who understands brand building,

processes and retail,? Cole told WWD. ?We will work well together.??My strength is that of the creative force, whose background is in product and wholesale, while Jill is an operator who understands brand building, processes and retail.?Kenneth Cole, Kenneth Cole Productions IncBefore joining Claiborne as group president of e-commerce in 2006, Granoff served as president and chief operating officer of Victoria?s Secret Beauty. During her tenure, sales doubled from $500 million to nearly $1 billion. Prior to that, she worked at the Est?e Lauder Cos. Inc. and served as a management consultant specializing in strategic planning and organization development.

Granoff will work closely with Cole, leveraging her experience with the founders of Juicy, Lucky, Victoria?s Secret and Est?e Lauder.

As she did at Victoria?s Secret, Granoff arrives at Kenneth Cole when the company is an estimated $500 million business that she thinks has the potential to double in size. ?The brand is bigger than the business,? said Granoff. ?There?s a huge opportunity to recognize, particularly with retail and e-commerce.?

But Granoff has her work cut out for her at Cole, which has been trying to elevate itself the last few years. The designer took his women?s and men?s wear lines off the runway after February 2006, and though there were plans to return the last two seasons to fete its 25th anniversary, the firm decided the collection was not yet ?runway-ready,? a spokeswoman said at the time.

Last year the company?s profits fell 73.5 percent to $7.1 million, on revenues that dropped 4.8 percent to $510.7 million. The firm closed several stores last year, leaving it with 44 full-priced doors and 42 company outlets. The company has also lost a few key executives: Kenneth Cole New York brand president Joshua Schulman quit in April for the top job at Jimmy Choo, and chief operating officer Joel Newman stepped down last summer after a year and a half at the firm.
1 2 | next

wwd.com