Yogawear retailer Lululemon Athletica Inc's logo is pictured as security personnel guard the entrance to the company's annual general meeting in Vancouver in this June 11, 2014 file photo.BEN NELMS/Reuters
Chip Wilson, founder and the largest shareholder of Lululemon Athletica Inc., is "very disappointed" it ignored his concerns about the yoga-wear retailer's performance at its annual meeting on Thursday.
After the brief meeting, Mr. Wilson said Lululemon's board of directors "strategically ignored the fundamental questions I raised about the company's business performance and strategy.
"I specifically asked for performance signs, signals and metrics that we should be looking for to regain our leadership position in the marketplace," he said in a statement after the online-only meeting. "I was ignored."
The war between Mr. Wilson and the company he founded in 1998 is escalating as he again lashes out at Lululemon and calls for changes to its board and management.
The latest battle follows Lululemon's refusal to let Mr. Wilson speak for 10 minutes at the annual meeting. The retailer had taken the unusual step of holding an online-only meeting and banning non-shareholders from listening in. Mr. Wilson had e-mailed questions to the company that he had asked it to respond to at the meeting.
Lululemon would not comment late Thursday on the meeting, which sources said lasted just 20 minutes or so. The company said in a statement Mr. Wilson has had no involvement with the retailer since stepping down as a board member in February, 2015. He also stepped down as chairman of the board in May, 2014, after controversial remarks he made that seemed to suggest some women were too big for Lululemon's svelte styles.
"As evidenced by our strong operational performance, we have the right board of directors and leadership team in place with the broad and deep expertise necessary to support the execution of our strategic five-year plan," Lululemon's statement said.
"This solid foundation gives us the tools to innovate and create as we deliver long-term sustainable growth for all stakeholders."
Lululemon is scheduled to report its first-quarter results on June 8.
But Mr. Wilson criticized Lululemon's performance compared with that of arch-rivals Under Armour Inc. and Nike Inc.
He said Lululemon, under new leadership over the past three years, has lost $7- to $14-billion in value compared with those two competitors.
"Billions of dollars of market capitalization and a unique competitive advantage have evaporated," he said.
But he said he's not deterred in his fight to see change at Lululemon. "No one knows better than I do what success factors we should be seeing, and I will be watching very closely …
"Like all shareholders, I want to have a team and strategy in place that will drive exponential value. We want to regain our original leadership position in the market we invented and built."
Mr. Wilson, who owns more than 14 per cent of Lululemon's shares, publicly criticized Lululemon two years ago at its annual meeting about its direction and performance.
Mr. Wilson said in an interview before the annual meeting that Lululemon has become "risk adverse." He said the company has failed to respond to many new ideas he brought to it over the last five years.
"There have been lots of opportunities given to Lululemon and it hasn't taken them," he said. "If you've got a board that only wants to do what's been proved, you're only going to do what's been done the year before," he said.
About two years ago, Mr. Wilson helped launch a rival upscale casual-wear chain called Kit and Ace with his wife, Shannon, and son J.J. Mr. Wilson has said he had offered the concept, which focuses on a "technical cashmere" fabric, to Lululemon but it rejected it.
Now as a Lululemon shareholder, Mr. Wilson is pushing for the company to change its rules so that the entire board would have to stand for re-election every year. It currently has a staggered board, with three of the 12 members having been voted in on Thursday.