French fashion tycoon Ralph Toledano has walked away from Victoria Beckham’s designer label as the company grapples with mounting losses.
Mr Toledano, a fashion industry veteran who was named in France’s New Year Honours list in January, is leaving Victoria Beckham Holdings after eight years as its chairman.
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It is the second high-profile departure from the company’s board of directors in recent years, after Marie Leblanc stepped down as chief executive in 2024 to spend more time with her family in France.
Mr Toledano had also been acting as interim chief executive after Ms Leblanc’s departure. A company source said his decision to quit was “nothing to do with the business”.
However, the departure of the French-Moroccan tycoon, who is best known for his tenure as chief executive of Chloé, will come as a further blow to Ms Beckham’s fashion business, which has racked up losses totalling £68m.
Mr Toledano was brought into Victoria Beckham’s business in 2018 after significant investment from Neo Investment Partners, a private equity firm.
Neo initially ploughed £30m into Ms Beckham’s fashion business, valuing the company at around £100m.
Later rounds of funding saw Neo and others – including the Beckhams themselves – inject a combined £25m into the business.
In the company’s latest accounts for the year to December 2024, bosses hailed the “strong consumer demand and continued brand momentum across both fashion and beauty”, saying they had “rightsized” the business.
Sales for the group were shown to have been rising, up 26pc to £112.7m in 2024. However, the latest accounts also revealed losses of £4.5m for that year, up from £3m a year earlier.
It marked the company’s 12th consecutive year in the red, and followed years of losses for Victoria Beckham Holdings, which acts as the umbrella business for the luxury fashion brand Victoria Beckham and her skincare company.
Mr Toledano said his exit from the brand was the “start of a new chapter”, telling Women’s Wear Daily that he was “technically retiring”.
The 74-year-old told Women’s Wear Daily: “The results are good, the roadmap is clear and there is great leadership.”
Mr Toledano later told industry publication Fashion Network that it had been “a great journey of eight years”.
He had previously been the president of Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the body responsible for organising Paris Fashion Week, where the Victoria Beckham brand made its first appearance in 2022.
Mr Toledano said: “I didn’t realise that investing in Victoria Beckham would take up so much time. At the end, I only realised how long it had been.”