Founder of Men’s Whorehouse

…suddenly not looking so good…

Men’s Wearhouse ousts founder, pitchman Zimmer

Apparently, Men’s Wearhouse Inc. doesn’t like the way its founder looks anymore.

In 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.”

The timing was even odd —the announcement 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.
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 the North America’s largest specialty men’s clothiers with 1,143 locations. The company generated revenue of $2.48 billion in its latest fiscal year ended Feb. 2.

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.

The difference between “founder” and “flounder” is just “l”, you know. Like Flo says in the commercial, “These are troubling times in the kingdom”.

2 Responses to “Founder of Men’s Whorehouse”

1. aelfheld says:

   June 19, 2013 at 3:13 pm

   Now he really does stand with the 99%.

2. Skyler says:

   June 19, 2013 at 7:29 pm

   Classic. If you don’t keep control of your company, someone else will do it for you. He clearly offered more shares for sale than he should have. I doubt he’ll be poor, though.