Carrie Baker is branching out at Canada Goose Holdings Inc. and becoming president, a new role at the company.
She will continue to report to Dani Reiss, chairman and chief executive officer, who still oversee all aspects of the business, including operations and strategy.
Baker, who was once Reiss’ chief of staff and helped lead Canada Goose’s 2017 initial public offering and the development of its Sustainable Impact Strategy, had been president of its North American business since June 2020.
The move consolidates the company’s commercial leadership and marketing under Baker, who has been with the parka-maker for more than a decade and has also previously held the titles of executive vice president and chief communications officer.
“Carrie has played an instrumental role in making Canada Goose the business it is today,” Reiss said. “She is a dynamic leader and proven operator….This change in structure marks an important inflection point for Canada Goose, on our way to the next milestone.”
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As Baker steps up, Ana Mihaljevic is taking on the dual role of president, North America, and executive vice president of sales operations and planning.
Canada Goose started with ultra-warm luxury parkas but has been steadily branching into a lifestyle positioning with lightweight gear, including knits, and the addition of footwear last year.
“We’re at that inflection point where we’re going to cross a billion this year — which is insane because I joined when we were at less than 100 million [Canadian dollars] in 2012,” Baker told WWD in an interview.
The company, which wraps up its fiscal year on Monday, has projected annual revenue of about 1.1 billion Canadian dollars.
Baker attributes that tenfold increase in the business to strong fundamentals.
“It has to start with great product,” she said. “It has to be awesome, without that it’s just smoke and mirrors — great product, made in Canada, top of the line materials going into it and that ethos, that combination has never wavered.”
Baker took charge of the North American business just as COVID-19 turned the world upside down and was able to establish the division and set its operations right again. The brand’s North America revenues grew by 36 percent for the first three quarters of this year.
While much of the industry retrenched during the pandemic, Canada Goose was able to push forward, opening new stores in the U.S.
Baker said there’s plenty of room still to grow, from its home market in Canada to the U.S. to Asia to Europe and beyond.
And the playbook isn’t changing.
“We’re not trend chasers,” Baker said. “We’re not interested in only fast wins. We are very deliberate. We are methodical. Our plan is ambitious, but we know we have to be disciplined in how we execute it for long-term success.”
That means starting small and testing to make sure the product is right before going bigger, as was the case with lightweight down and is proving to be the case with newer product categories, like boots.
“We didn’t have to do footwear,” she said. “We’ve got a lot more jackets to sell. But the ambition is to be a meaningful part of consumers’ lives throughout the year and in many more geographies than cold weather cities.”
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