Rent the Runway is ready to turn the page with new leadership and new focus on its core offering. 

Paige Thomas has been promoted to chief executive officer, president and board member of the rental pioneer, putting a retail veteran of Signet Jewelers, Saks Off 5th and Nordstrom into the corner office. 

Thomas joined the company as chief commercial officer in June and has been using her better than 30 years of retail experience to help hone the corporate strategy with Teri Bariquit, interim CEO.

As Thomas steps up, Bariquit will become non-executive chair of the board. Dhiren Fonseca will step down as executive chairman but remain as a director. 

Thomas said: “I’m focused on listening to our customer and making every decision through her lens, doubling down on fashion and what makes this fashion service platform unique, while executing with operational excellence. This is not a new direction — it’s an acceleration of the strong foundation the team has built. The path is clear, and I’ve never been more excited to lead the team forward.”

Bariquit, who stepped in to lead the business after cofounder and CEO Jennifer Hyman left in May, told WWD that she was “super excited to pass the baton” on to Thomas and to “let her continue forward the strategy.”

“We feel really, really good about the direction we’re going,” Bariquit said. “We’ll be working very closely together on that, really continue to focus on our obsession around the customer and this core rental business.”

It’s been a time of contemplation for the business, which at one time promised widespread fashion revolution, but was never quite able to get there as funds ran short and the strategy migrated.  

Bariquit said things are now coming into focus with a two-sided approach. 

“We’ve become very clear that we want to position Rent the Runway as a premium fashion service platform,” she said. “What that means is, we’re giving her access to premium fashion, whether she is renting or buying, serviced with styling intelligence…helping her get dressed. 

“The other side of the platform is then being able to be a place where brands and other partners get exposure to highly valued, highly engaged customers,” she said. “We have great customers, they engage a ton and they’re very valuable. So we’re honing in on how we implement and how we execute against that strategy with really three key objectives, total customer growth, profitability expansion and operational excellence.”

For the second quarter ended July 31, Rent the Runway’s revenues rose 20.8 percent to $97.7 million. Average active subscribers increased 1 percent to 148,259.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization totaled $12.6 million, up from $3.6 million a year earlier. 

And net losses were more than halved, to $12.9 million. 

As the company zeroed in on its core rental and selling operations, it is stepping back from some pilot projects and smaller initiatives, including its online marketplace and efforts to sell on-site advertising. The firm is also no longer pursuing a new business-to-business dry-cleaning business that would have made use of its mammoth cleaning operation. 

Bariquit said, “There’s real opportunity from a revenue perspective, whether it’s subscription rental, reserve rental, or whether it’s selling, resale, the customer signals are clearly there.”

The company’s still newish backers — including Story3 Capital Partners, Nexus Capital Management and Aranda Principal Strategies — are feeling the same, extending the company a $10 million term loan on top of the refinancing completed last year.

“With the support of the investors, we can make the right strategic choices,” Bariquit said.