Capri Holdings announced in a statement Wednesday that designer Michael Kors would not be stepping down from his namesake label following a report that the brand was mulling succession plans.

According to a WWD report citing anonymous sources, top management at Michael Kors has been putting plans in place to prepare for the designer’s exit from the label he founded in 1981.

”Michael Kors is and will remain the chief creative officer of his namesake company. His vision is essential to our success,” John Idol, chairman and chief executive of Capri Holdings, said in a statement. “Any information to the contrary is incorrect.”

This year, the brand will come under the leadership of competitor Tapestry Inc, which is set to acquire Capri Holdings for $8.5 billion. Tapestry will have to contend with how to grow the brand, which is Capri’s largest by revenue and has seen declining sales due to an over-reliance on wholesale and lack of newness in its handbag assortment. For the quarter ending Dec. 30, 2023, Michael Kors posted revenue of $1.03 billion, a nearly 6 percent decline compared to the same period in 2022.

”Tapestry is inheriting a problem child with Michael Kors, and they’re going to have to sort that out,” Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData, a data analytics and consulting company, told BoF, following news of the merger.

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