Joanne Crevoiserat might have had to turn to Plan B for Tapestry Inc. after the $8.5 billion acquisition of Capri Holdings fell through — but the chief executive officer hasn’t lost her ambition.
Crevoiserat is looking at the global handbag opportunity anew, defining the total addressable market not by how many people bought bags last year, but how many people could have.
“That is giving us an opportunity to expand our brand reach across geographies and generations,” Crevoiserat told WWD in an interview.
The new target audience is mammoth — Tapestry puts it at 1.9 billion people in markets where the Coach and Kate Spade brands currently hold a collective market share of 0.6 percent.
By the company’s way of thinking, that new take on the consumer unlocks an opportunity to grow by 10-times down the line.
“We’re winning with a new generation of consumers, particularly with the momentum we’re seeing in the Coach brand,” Crevoiserat said. “And we’re doing that because we’re not thinking about the market in maybe traditional terms.”
Crevoiserat will define the new market and lay out the company’s three-year strategic plan at an investor meeting Wednesday. Dubbed Amplify, the new plan aims to:
- Push Coach revenues to $10 billion in the long run, a big boost from $5.6 billion last year.
- Return Kate Spade to growth in fiscal 2027.
- Expand revenues operating margins by more than 200 basis points to more than 22 percent for fiscal 2027 and 2028.
- Return $4 billion to shareholders through fiscal 2028 with share repurchases and dividends.
To hit those targets, the plan leans on familiar elements, including strong emotional connections with consumers, fashion innovation and compelling experiences. Tapestry is also looking to “Amplify the power of our people: Future-proofing our growth by continuing to drive a consumer-obsessed culture that is agile and always looking forward.”
“This is a proven playbook,” Crevoiserat said. “We have a strong foundation today and we’re delivering unbeatable value and we’ve created a lot of value for our shareholders.”
Joanne C. Crevoiserat
Justin Kaneps/WWD
Tapestry is among the most highly valued of the American fashion and retail companies with a market capitalization of $21.9 billion.
“Through our Amplify agenda, it is really amplifying from a place of strength where we’ll reach more consumers, we’ll have more sustainable growth and more value creation for our shareholders,” the CEO said.
Much of that value is expected to come from younger shoppers coming into the Coach brand.
“If you look at the number of women turning 18 every year for the next 10 years, there are 25 million people globally in the markets where we already do business,” Crevoiserat said. “Why is that significant? Because that’s when a woman may be graduating from high school and moving to college, leaving her backpack at home and wanting to buy a handbag.
“We want to capture this consumer as she enters the market,” she said. “This gives us a powerful opportunity to expand the market as well as our share, but also to build that brand love that’s fostered for a lifetime from that first purchase and obviously gives us an opportunity to build lifetime value.”
Todd Kahn, CEO and brand president at Coach, said the brand is looking to — to some degree — repeat history.
“This isn’t a theoretical idea,” Khan said. “At our best Coach did this before, we expanded the market. When Coach launched accessible luxury 20 years ago, that’s what they did. We brought new people into the category.”
