Latest news with #Columbus-headquartered
Business Insider
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Bath & Body Works is ready to go international after a bruising year saw its stock fall 40%
Bath & Body Works' new CEO is only 10 days into the job, but is already planning a major strategy shakeup. The home fragrance retailer reported a strong start to 2025, with net sales up 2.9% to $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025. Earnings per diluted share jumped 29% to $0.49, surpassing the firm's own projections. A new Disney collaboration leading to the launch of six Disney Princesses fragrances helped to boost earnings from the most recent period, Bath & Body Works said. In its statement, the company also introduced its new CEO, Daniel Heaf, who was previously Nike 's chief strategy and transformation officer and senior vice president at different departments in Burberry. Speaking about his plans for the Columbus-headquartered retailer just 10 days into the job, Heaf said the firm would be listening to customers to gather insights, using those insights to create products, sharing brand and product stories, and bringing all of that together in an integrated global marketplace. "Today, international represents about 5% of our business, but from my experience at both Nike and Burberry, I know that international growth is incremental," he told investors in the earnings call on Thursday. "It can define an era." "In the coming weeks, I'll be on the ground with our partners and customers internationally to explore how we scale effectively," Heaf said. Bath & Body Works has suffered a bruising year. Stock is down over 40% since the end of May 2024. Earlier this year, it forecast annual sales generally below predictions, citing uncertainty about President Donald Trump 's tariffs. Before that, when the company's market capitalization fell to about $6.6 billion in September, it was removed from the S&P 500, which at the time required a market cap of at least $18 billion. It was instead moved to the S&P SmallCap 600. "Bath & Body Works is no longer representative of the large-cap market space," the stock market index provider said in a statement. The beauty chain operates 1,900 stores in the US and Canada, and 524 international franchised locations. 14 new stores internationally were opened during the last quarter. 19 stores were closed, predominantly in the United States. "Our international expansion plans for 2025 remain on track with at least 30 planned net new store openings," Heaf said in the call. Eva Boratto, chief financial officer, said Bath & Body Works' guidance for this fiscal year includes the anticipated impact of tariffs and the predicted financial effects of the CEO transition. The company has maintained its guidance for 2025 of 1% to 3% growth in net sales.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ohio professors submit 4,500 signatures to repeal controversial higher ed bill
Apr. 21—By Laura Hancock (TNS) COLUMBUS — Youngstown State University professors working to repeal a controversial higher education law submitted their petition and about 4,500 signatures to state officials Monday afternoon — kickstarting a long and expensive process of getting a referendum on the ballot. The group collected 4,500 signatures in about 10 days, said Mark Vopat, president of the Youngstown State Education Association. (The Columbus-headquartered Ohio Education Association is not involved in the referendum effort.) The professors needed at least 1,000 valid signatures of registered Ohio voters. They're aiming to get the referendum on ballots for the Nov. 4 General Election. Those initial 1,000 signatures are just the first hurdle in the process of adding the referendum to the ballot. The proposal will go through several administrative reviews before organizers can begin collecting hundreds of thousands of additional signatures they will need to put the question before voters. The group wants to repeal Senate Bill 1, which Gov. Mike DeWine signed March 28 and which goes into effect June 23. The new law bans diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public colleges and universities, prohibits professors from striking, states professors can't "indoctrinate" students and requires all viewpoints to be considered during class discussion, among dozens of other requirements. Many Ohio faculty and students opposed the bill during legislative testimony and in demonstrations around the Statehouse, citing labor union changes to the potential of students with extremist views derailing a class discussion. Vopat said that before the group's website went live, people throughout the state were asking if they could gather petitioners, which he believes is a sign of how deeply unpopular SB 1 is. Many Ohioans link the Ohio legislature's desire to control higher education to President Donald Trump, Vopat said. This could give the referendum a boost. "It's almost a state version of what's going on in the federal government," he said, noting that Youngstown State recently lost 14 international students because the U.S. Department of Homeland Security revoked their visas. State Sen. Jerry Cirino, a Lake County Republican who sponsored the bill, has defended it in recent public appearances, saying state funding for public colleges and universities will be tied to compliance with the new law. "We are not kidding around. This law will not be ignored. It will be welcomed, and it will be implemented at our universities and community colleges," Cirino said last week at the City Club of Cleveland. Money could be a challenge for the group. A successful referendum campaign can cost millions just to get on the ballot, and then millions more for digital and broadcast advertising. The professors at this point don't have any well-heeled groups backing them, Vopat said. For referenda, petitioners have to submit the petition and signatures to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose in downtown Columbus. Within one day of that submission, the petitioners must submit a copy of SB 1 and their petition summary to the Ohio Attorney General's Office, also in downtown Columbus, according to an explanation of the process by the AG's office. Within the next 10 business days of receiving the petition, the Secretary of State's office must verify the petition signers are registered voters and their addresses on the petition matches that of their voter registrations, according to the Secretary of State's office. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost also gets 10 days to review the petition and certify whether he believes the summary to be a fair and truthful statement of the law to be repealed. In recent ballot initiatives, Yost has rejected summaries and petition titles. Then the Ohio Ballot Board, a group of elected and appointed officials, meets within 10 days to determine whether the referendum contains one repeal or more than one. After the Ballot Board meetings, the second round of signature-gathering can begin. The group would need just under 250,000 valid signatures statewide from at least 44 of Ohio's 88 counties. They would have to submit the signatures by the end of June to qualify for the November ballot. Many successful petition and referendum campaigns use paid signature-gatherers for this stretch of the campaign. That may not be the case for the professors. "That would be really nice if we had money to hire petition gatherers," Vopat said. "Right now, there's no plan to hire anyone." If those signatures are gathered and submitted, LaRose will work with local election officials to verify them. If enough valid signatures have been submitted, the referendum can proceed to the ballot. "When we started it, the whole idea to show everyone — other unions, the OEA, the (American Association of University Professors — Ohio chapter,) all the groups across Ohio, whether they're academic or not, that there is a groundswell of support for this," Vopat said. "That if we can start it, then other groups, other individuals will jump on board."
