Bath & Body Works faces sale pressure as Barington Capital raises stake
Despite recent financial struggles and share-price weakness, Bath & Body Works has continued executing its turnaround plan.
USA – Activist investor Barington Capital Group, a New York City–based firm, has increased its stake in Bath & Body Works and is pushing the personal care and home fragrance retailer to explore a potential sale.
The move could intensify pressure on Bath & Body Works to speed up its turnaround or pursue a strategic transaction, which, if it went to market, would represent one of the largest specialist fragrance and personal care takeover opportunities for private equity or strategic buyers.
As of 30 June 2026, Barington held about 780,000 shares, or a 0.38% stake, per London Stock Exchange Group data cited by Reuters, but recent purchases have lifted its holding to more than one million shares.
Shares of the Ohio-based company rose roughly 2% in extended trading after the reports, though the stock is still down nearly 13% year to date.
Bath & Body Works operates 1,937 company-owned stores in the US and Canada and has 596 international partner-operated locations, including travel retail, and neither side has commented publicly since the reports emerged.
The retailer has been contending with a difficult consumer spending backdrop while executing a turnaround under CEO Daniel Heaf, who took the helm in 2025.
The investor is urging the retailer to appoint advisers to explore a sale, while also calling for share buybacks and indicating it may seek board representation, according to Bloomberg.
Barington reportedly wants Bath & Body Works to lift revenue and support its share price through buybacks and plans to publish a letter to the board in the coming weeks.
In August, the company forecast a wider-than-expected decline in current-quarter sales, citing weak store traffic and broader mall traffic softness, and Heaf told Reuters that early turnaround progress has not yet offset wider business challenges.
Mitarotonda has also blamed repeated management changes over the past five years for harming sales and the brand, per Bloomberg.
Second-quarter 2026 results show net sales fell 2.3% to USD 1.51 billion, while net income rose to USD 118 million from USD 64 million, and the company guided for a full-year sales decline of 2.5% to 4%.
This summer, it partnered with Ulta Beauty to offer a curated selection of its body care and home fragrance products to Ulta shoppers across the US, a move aligned with both retailers’ strategies to expand partnerships and reach.
For Bath & Body Works, the Ulta deal is part of its Consumer First Formula, aimed at revitalizing the brand, refocusing on core categories and making the shopping experience less overwhelming.
In July, the company also expanded into Brazil with its first store in São Paulo, part of its international growth strategy and an effort to tap rising regional demand for fragrance-led products.
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