Among the London list of Dr. Martens in London and late March of this year, when Kenny Wilson left as executive director, the boots manufacturer lost more than 80 percent of its value.
Reflecting on his almost seven years in charge as he advances to non -executive roles, Wilson insists that the business did not go back under his surveillance.
“It’s easy to look back and go, ‘I wish I would have included a lower price,” says Wilson, who is still the largest individual shareholder of Dr. Martens. “But the reality is that the market was in a different place.”
“We were leaving Covid-19, we had not had all the problems we have had in energy prices, inflation was not [high]. And then we read badly what happened in the United States, ”he adds, referring to the failed expansion efforts of Dr. Martens that subsequently contributed to gain warnings.
Wilson remembers that Dr. Martens, whose black boots with yellow seams were once the punk and skinheads uniform, signed eight times in excess of £ 4.40 per action before its initial public offer. It ended up listing £ 3.70, valuing it at £ 3.7 billion, during a burst of other opi to high valuations as the world arose from blockages. “I remember sitting in a room and say: ‘I don’t think we should [list at £4.40]. ‘
The price of the action is now around 55p, which gives the company a market capitalization of just over £ 500 million.
“If someone bought £ 3.70 and the shares are worth much less, I understand that they will not be happy,” says Wilson, who sold £ 20.4 million of actions at the time of the opi. “I’m not happy. I like to do well, and I’m not going to sit here and lie and say I’m happy.”
Executive directors tend to like to leave their positions at the top, but Wilson has left just when the business can be starting to bend a corner after a couple of difficult years. The company said in January that sales had improved in the United States, indicating the beginning of its change, although this was before President Donald Trump’s rates were announced.
Wilson, who has delivered the former brand director Ihe nwokorieHe says that the business advanced in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as in Asia, during his term. The income increased from £ 349 million in 2018 to £ 877 million in its last financial year and profits before taxes of £ 1mn to £ 93mn, although it admits that the growth trajectory has not been linear. The company increased to a loss of £ 28.7 million in six months until September 29.
“Is it still a great brand? Yes. Will Dr. Martens be recovered? I think he will, yes.”
An experienced retailer, after having spent almost two decades in the Jeans Levi’s manufacturer, Wilson has a significant experience leading and growing companies through stable times and periods of significant changes and challenges.
Now it is one of the Registration number of executive directors give up your work in recent months. After several years like CEO, he says he thought it is time to do something different. ” His decision to leave was partly influenced by a health scare suffered by his wife, which “makes you think of life instead of just your work.”
“It had been CEO for 14 years, and that is a work of the six -day week, and had been in a very senior job for 25 years. So, when you do that, you have your work, and what remains at the edges is your life.”
Wilson says that the executive directors of companies listed, such as politicians, often “begin in their most popular and less competent, and end as the most competent but less popular.”
The key is to remain optimistic, maintain the morals of the team and see each challenge as a learning opportunity that finally makes it a more adaptable and resistant leader, he adds.
He says he learned more during the 19 years he spent in Levi’s, once he describes as “the decisive period of my career.” He ended as president of the brand for Europe.
“I didn’t realize what I knew until I had left … I always thought very well about that company, because … they put all the different tools in my toolbox, and they gave me an incredible schooling and [taught me] How to manage and manage a brand, but more than that, how to manage a business and how to control a profit and losses account. “
Born and raised in Aberdeen, Wilson was a direct student who studied English and psychology at the University of Aberdeen. He briefly considered becoming a sports journalist, but then embarked on a postgraduate scheme in retail trade. “It was never really a great plan. I just thought, I like things that are quite oriented to the goal.”
He says he made his way to Levi’s assuming “any comfort that was available, whether it is a new function or a new country … I was never really so interested in hierarchical movements.
“People always tell me: ‘Oh, did you want superior job?’ It wasn’t really about that. [But] It was about learning. He was thirsty to learn new things. ”
He left Levi’s in 2009 as the next role would have meant living in San Francisco or Singapore, far from his daughter. “The other thing I thought, if I am brutally honest, was: ‘Am I okay or well here?'”
He worked at the accessories retailer, Claire’s, and then directed Cath Kidston, before landing at Dr. Martens.
“I am a type of product. If you love the product, you can leave and evangelize about it, and Dr. Martens for me is like Levi’s. It is a brand with which I grew up. But the other reason why I joined … I thought, ‘With my skill set, I think I can help here.’
It rejects negative generalizations on the private capital industry, noting that its support in Dr. Martens and Cath Kidston led to significant growth and created jobs.
The culminating point of his career was to administer Dr. Martens during Covid, when stores were forced to close worldwide. Despite the initial fears on cash flow, his team came up with an “survive now, grow” and tried to boost employees in warehouses to maintain online operations in operation. This led to record performance and employee participation scores.
“The pressure of those [first] Three months were out of the scale because we had to provide comfort and certainty to people when we really didn’t have the answer. ”
The low point, admits, were the subsequent problems in the distribution center in Los Angeles, where several decisions led to supply chain problems that, although they set relatively quickly, he says, continued to discuss for much longer.
“Some of this was from our own creation and people were looking for me to punish people, and I don’t think anyone is going to work and wants to make bad decisions. A distribution center closed faster than it should have done; someone diverted the product they shouldn’t have done; but none of those people tried to do incorrect.”
He adds: “Obviously, people then say: ‘Well, you are responsible, you should have known it.’ It is physically impossible, such as CEO, knowing every decision that everyone is making throughout the world.
At 58, Wilson says that Dr. Martens was his last executive role. Recently he was appointed president and non-executive director of the luxury street clothing brand represents and has joined the K-Way Board, a French premium output clothing brand.
He says that he sought opportunities with companies that have growth potential but that, instead of being the driving force, he now wants to use his experience to support and advise the executive directors.
“I know I can’t stop, I’m too young to stop working … but I don’t want to be CEO at this time.
“I am in the last phase of my career. I still want to achieve things and have fun, but I also want to happen to the next generation.”
