The CEO of Levi’s might have admitted something strange about his jeans. Buzz60’s Mercer Morrison has the story.
It was casual Thursday — not Friday — at the New York Stock Exchange as traders were allowed to dress down in honor of Levi Strauss, the denim icon whose shares surged 32 percent in trading Thursday as it returned to the public market. Ringing the bell and smiling through it all was CEO Chip Bergh, whose turnaround of the 166-year-old brand has reinvigorated sales, added partnerships with hip brands, and focused more on female consumers.
A longtime Procter & Gamble brand executive, Bergh took over in 2011 and has overseen a growth in annual revenue to $5.6 billion, up 13 percent from the year before. The Washington Post checked in with Bergh at the end of IPO day about his turnaround, running a public company, and why it’s better to wear your jeans in the shower than put them in the washing machine. The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.
You’re now CEO of a public company. Does that change anything about how you run things?
I don’t think it fundamentally changes anything. I think what investors have invested in, and what they’ve bought into, is that our strategies are working. They’ve bought into the executive team and to me as a leader. I think there’s a degree of confidence that we’ve built in our ability to continue to sustain profitable growth. There’s going to be the inevitable quarterly pressures, but don’t kid yourself: Even as a private company, we had commitments to our board and to our shareholders that I took just as seriously as I’m going to take our commitments to the public investors. There’s always been that quarterly pressure and the pressure to deliver. I think that’s healthy.
Video by Buzz60/Mercer Morrison[/vc_message]
