{"id":625874,"date":"2026-04-24T16:21:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/625874\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T16:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:21:17","slug":"lululemon-shares-drop-13-after-new-ceo-announced-national","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/625874\/","title":{"rendered":"Lululemon shares drop 13% after new CEO announced – National"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lululemon<\/a>\u00a0Athletica Inc.\u2019s share price fell more than 13 per cent a day after the retailer named a new CEO.<\/p>\n

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The Vancouver-based company\u2019s shares ended Thursday trading on the Nasdaq<\/a> at about US$141.<\/p>\n

The day before,\u00a0Lululemon\u00a0announced former Nike<\/a> executive Heidi O\u2019Neill will join the company as its next CEO and new board member on Sept. 8.<\/p>\n

Laurent Vasilescu, senior analyst with BNP Paribas Equity Research, said Thursday\u2019s price drop is a sign that the market is disappointed\u00a0Lululemon\u00a0chose O\u2019Neill as its next CEO.<\/p>\n

Given that Lululemon\u2019s announcement credited her with helping to grow Nike from a $9-billion business into a $45-billion athletic brand, and quoted her as saying\u00a0Lululemon\u00a0is \u201cin the early stages of its potential,\u201d Vasilescu thinks she was chosen to be a growth CEO.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this juncture,\u00a0Lululemon\u00a0needs a turnaround CEO and not a growth CEO,\u201d he wrote in a note to investors.<\/p>\n

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While the company remains one of the world\u2019s most prominent athleisure brands, it\u2019s lost some of its lustre in recent years. Competitors like Alo and Vuori have stolen away customers, shoppers have signalled Lululemon\u2019s product lines have a lack of newness and markdowns have become more common at the brand.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s also faced increased criticism from shareholders, including estranged founder Chip Wilson and activist investor Elliott Management. Since\u00a0Lululemon\u00a0CEO Calvin McDonald announced he was stepping down in December, the shareholders have been lobbying for their own CEO and board member picks, claiming\u00a0Lululemon\u00a0needs to better address its lower share price and many competitors.<\/p>\n

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Wilson and Elliott Management have yet to comment on O\u2019Neill\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n

Vasilescu said O\u2019Neill joined Nike in 1998 and ran the company\u2019s direct-to-consumer business, \u201cwhich now is being de-emphasized after it did not unlock margins.\u201d<\/p>\n

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She stepped down as Nike\u2019s president of consumer, product and brand in May 2025 but has remained with the company in an advisory role since September 2025.<\/p>\n

While Vasilescu was critical of her appointment, even going so far as to title his note to investors \u201cUh-Oh\u2019Neill,\u201d others saw her as a logical choice.<\/p>\n

Neil Saunders, managing director at consulting and analytics firm GlobalData, pointed out she has experience in activewear and has sat on the boards of many customer service-focused companies like Spotify Technology and Hyatt Hotels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be helpful as\u00a0Lululemon\u00a0thinks beyond products to the wider impression the brand and its touchpoints have on customers,\u201d he wrote in a Wednesday note to investors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge will be to inject more energy and restore\u00a0Lululemon\u00a0as one of the leaders in terms of product innovation. This can be accomplished under O\u2019Neill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lululemon\u00a0Athletica Inc.\u2019s share price fell more than 13 per cent a day after the retailer named a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,1849,46,40221,166,14924],"class_list":["post-625874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-consumer","tag-economy","tag-lululemon","tag-nasdaq","tag-nike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}