Kappahl CEO Feltmann quits, his vision differs from the board's

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 18, 2018

Danny Feltmann has stepped down with immediate effect from his post as CEO at Swedish fashion retailer KappAhl and has been replaced temporarily by board member Göran Bille. The process for recruiting a new CEO “begins immediately,” the company said.

Bille has been a board member for 18 months and was previously CEO of Gina Tricot and group CEO of Lindex, as well as a senior H&M executive.

But why is Feltmann leaving? The company said that “the decision is a consequence of the board of directors and the CEO having different views on the company's development and priorities and the natural thing is then to go separate ways.”

But KappAhl also stressed “the management change has not been caused by short-term sales or earnings variations, as the sales and earnings for the third quarter of 2018 are expected to be in line with the outcome for the third quarter of 2017.”

But despite that statement, it’s undeniable that KappAhl hasn’t performed as well as hoped in recent periods. Late last year it said Q1 hadn’t lived up to expectations and it admitted “the autumn range and the way it was presented to the market did not appeal sufficiently to our customer.”

And the situation didn’t seem to improve this year as poor weather, markdowns and fashion mis-steps continued to dent its sales and profits.