Lanvin Group’s high-end hosiery and lingerie business Wolford doesn’t seem to have a lot of luck with retaining its CEOs. News has come through that Regis Rimbert is standing down from the role and quitting the management board effective at the end of this week.

We’re told the Supervisory Board of Wolford AG accepted his request for resignation that was submitted on Tuesday.

He’s been in the post only since the middle of last year and took over from Silvia Azzali, who’d been with the firm since 2019 but had only been CEO since 2023.

So what happens at the helm of the Austrian business now? Current global CFO Andrea Rossi has been named interim general manager.

As mentioned, Rimbert joined last year (in June). He’d had a previous stint at Wolford having held senior management positions between 2009 and 2013, during which time the company saw rising sales and profitability as it moved from a physical stores-based business to an omnichannel one.

But the company has struggled in recent years with Rimbert’s big task being to kickstart the recovery as well as expanding internationally, adding new products and driving innovation.

In its most recent results (for the first half of 2024, before Rimbert arrived) Wolford, which was acquired by Lanvin Group owner Fosun in 2018, showed just how tough times have been in recent periods.

The group as a whole was dented by the soft luxury market but Wolford’s revenue and margin were hit by other issues. It saw “a significant shipping delay due to integration issues with a new logistics provider”.

Its revenue plummeted 28% from €59 million to €43 million, blaming those integration issues. The challenging wholesale market in Europe also had an impact. DTC fell 14% and wholesale by 53%, while EMEA saw the largest drop at 34%, North America by 10%, and APAC by 24% with Greater China seeing a 20% decline.

Its gross profit margin dropped to 63% from 72%, again due to the logistics issues and a planned liquidation of excess inventory.

We don’t yet know how the business fared in the second half of 2024 after Rimbert arrived. Its annual report is due at the end of April while it’s unclear when parent company Lanvin Group will next report. Its last set of half-year results came out in late August.