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company in the neighbourhood of $67 million in lost sales. On April 3, in separate press releases, Lululemon issued an update on the sheer-pants debacle and its pro- duction cause, and announced that its chief product officer, Sheree Waterson, would be leaving the company. Later in June, along with confirm- ing CEO Christine Day's resignation, the company announced that it would delist from the Toronto Stock Exchange, sending its share price on the Nasdaq exchange down 15 per cent to US$69.33 by the following morning. Day said she was resigning due to personal reasons, but news media and analysts speculated otherwise. "The fact of the matter is, these have been trying times at the company and I think that there are some in the Lululemon community that have not been a fan of Christine Day," Elizabeth Dunn, senior analyst at Macquarie Securities, told the Business News Net- work. "There are some Lulu loyalists who have complained, actually quite loudly, about senior leadership with the thought that there's been a move to profits over quality." The search for a new CEO was on, but before good news could break, the company made international headlines in November when founder and board chair Chip Wilson went public, blam- ing customers' bodies for fabric pilling. "Quite frankly, some women's bod- ies just actually don't work for it," he said of the company's yoga pants in an interview on Bloomberg TV. "It's really about the rubbing through the thighs," he continued. Many considered his remarks insensitive and "fat-shaming," and matters were only made worse when Wilson issued a video apology, not to the public as expected, but to employees for having to deal with the backlash. It didn't come as much of a sur- prise, then, that Wilson stepped down from his post as chair of the board (but retained a seat on the board of direc- tors) about a month after the "thighs" scandal. The news, however, was bur- ied underneath the announcement that Lululemon had appointed Lau- rent Potdevin as the company's new CEO, replacing Day, who would remain on the board until the end of the fiscal year. Potdevin was most recently presi- dent of Toms Shoes. "As we move into 2014, we are reflecting on our learnings with humil- ity, and are entirely focused on our future," said Potdevin in a prepared statement, alluding to the trying year the company had just undergone. "2014 is an investment year with an emphasis on strengthening our foun- dation, reigniting our product engine and accelerating sustainable and con- trolled global expansion." ■ bcbusiness.ca July 2014 BCBusiness 95 t o p 1 0 0 s e c t o r h i g h l i g h t: r e ta i l Rank C o m pa n y Revenue 2013 ($000) Revenue 2012 ($000) 1 H.y. Louie Co. Ltd. 4,850,000 e 4,750,000 e 2 Best Buy Canada Ltd. 4,500,000 e 4,813,182 e 3 B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch 2,950,417 2,889,869 4 London Drugs Ltd. 2,100,000 e 2,000,000 e 5 Lululemon athletica Inc. 1,638,788 c 1,369,783 c 6 Kal Tire Ltd. 1,480,000 1,450,000 7 Glentel Inc. 1,366,481 784,837 8 7-Eleven Canada Inc. 800,000 NA 9 Inland Kenworth Ltd. 752,400 672,781 10 openRoad auto Group Ltd. 444,996 414,394 e=estimate; c=converted from $US at 1.03 (2013) or $0.99 (2012) p092-095-Top100_Retail.indd 95 14-06-04 8:22 AM