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Lululemon Founder Joins World’s Richest as Yogawear Brand Surges

Lululemon Founder Joins World’s Richest as Yogawear Brand Surges

Lululemon Founder Joins World’s Richest as Yogawear Brand Surges
(Source: Chip Wilson’s Twitter Page)

(Bloomberg) -- Lululemon Athletica Inc. founder Chip Wilson now ranks among the 500 richest people on the planet as the company’s shares have surged 15 percent since the yoga-wear maker reported blowout second-quarter results.

The Vancouver-based company climbed to a record after beating Wall Street’s net sales estimates for the eighth quarter in a row on Thursday and raising its full-year revenue and profit projections.

Lululemon Founder Joins World’s Richest as Yogawear Brand Surges

The share surge added $311 million to Wilson’s fortune on Friday and a further $41 million on Tuesday to leave him with a $3.9 billion fortune, the 496th largest on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Wilson -- who owns a 13 percent stake in Lululemon -- joins Canadians such as retailer Galen Weston and former EBay Inc. President Jeff Skoll on the ranking. Wilson’s holding company Hold It All Inc. didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment on his net worth.

Lululemon Founder Joins World’s Richest as Yogawear Brand Surges

Wilson, 62, can’t claim too much credit for recent operational results at Lululemon. He stepped down from the board in 2015, two years after resigning as chairman following an interview on Bloomberg Television in which he said Lululemon’s pants “don’t work for some women’s bodies.” He apologized a week later.

--With assistance from Andrew Heathcote.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Metcalf in New York at tmetcalf7@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill

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