Familiar face -- and company founder -- loses Men's Wearhouse job
NEW YORK — Apparently, Men's Wearhouse Inc. doesn't like the way its founder looks anymore.
In a terse release issued Wednesday, Men's Wearhouse said it has fired the face of the company and its executive chairman, George Zimmer, who appeared in many of its TV commercials with the slogan “You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it.”
In a statement issued to CNBC, Zimmer said that over the past several months, he and the company's board disagreed about the company's direction and that the board “inappropriately has chosen to silence my concerns,” by firing him.
Men's Wearhouse gave no reason for the abrupt firing of Zimmer, who built Men's Wearhouse from one small Texas store using a cigar box as a cash register to one of North America's largest specialty men's clothiers with 1,143 locations.
The timing of the announcement was odd — it happened the morning the company's annual shareholder meeting had been set to take place. The company delayed the meeting but didn't give a new date.
The company said the purpose of postponing the annual meeting is to re-nominate the existing board of directors without Zimmer. It said the board expects to discuss with Zimmer the extent, if any, and terms of “his ongoing relationship” with the company.
The news shocked analysts and corporate governance experts, who tried to speculate what happened.
“This is very rare to fire a founder. Founders are generally entrenched in the company,” said Eleanor Bloxham, CEO of The Value Alliance, a board advisory firm.
Zimmer, who handed over his CEO title to Douglas Ewert in 2011, was the company's personable, down-to-earth face, his slogan almost a cultural touchstone.
The abrupt departure comes a week after Men's Wearhouse reported that its fiscal first-quarter profit increased 23 percent, helped by stronger profit margins and an earlier prom season.
Zimmer owned 1.8 million shares of Men's Wearhouse as of the company's May 9 proxy filing, a 3.5 percent stake in the company.
The company, based in Fremont, Calif., also runs the Moores and K&G retail chains. It also sells uniform and work wear in the U.S. and U.K.
