Beleagured L Brands just lost its best asset. That's bad news for former CEO Les Wexner but it could be quite liberating for Bath & Body Works.  Last month, private equity firm Sycamore Brands took a majority stake in Victoria’s Secret and intends to take the lingerie brand private, which would leave Bath & Body Works as an independent, publicly-traded company. During L Brands’ fourth-quarter earnings call last week, executives laid out their plan for ensuring that sales continue to grow at Bath & Body Works over the next year, namely by opening more international and off-mall locations, as well as investing in some long-overdue digital capabilities, like rolling out buy online and pick up in-store, and revamping its loyalty program.

BBW's sales rose 5% to $5.19 billion last year. And the retailer has more room, much more room, to run, according to analysts, who note that BBW doesn't offer much in the way of digital services. Furthermore, international markets beckon. The majority of Bath & Body Works stores are in the US. It has zero stores in the U.K., France, Germany, Japan or China. During the recent conference call, L Brands CFO Stuart Burgdoerfer said last week during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call that Bath & Body Works plans to open more stores abroad, primarily through franchising, but did not say in which regions specifically the chain would focus on.

While historically the majority of Bath & Body Works’ stores have been located in enclosed shopping malls, Bath & Body Works is now turning its attention to opening stores in strip malls. Burgdoerfer said that now, about 45% of Bath & Body Works’ stores are located outside of enclosed malls and that “substantially all” of the stores that Bath & Body Works plans to open in 2020 will be outside of enclosed malls.It’s an important move to ensure that Bath & Body Works remains set up for success as fewer shoppers continue to visit malls.