Ralph Lauren. Hugo Boss. Apparel market in Canada. Go to report. Contact Get in touch with us. We are happy to help. Vianny Gutierrez-Cruz. Sales Manager — Contact United States. Ziyan Zhang. Customer Relations — Contact Asia. Kisara Mizuno. Customer Success Manager — Contact Asia. Lodovica Biagi. Our international jeanswear businesses operate manufacturing facilities located in Poland, Turkey and Malta.
For these owned production plants, we purchase raw materials from numerous domestic and international suppliers for scheduled production. Over the last several years, VF has shifted production from the United States to lower cost locations. Similarly, European jeanswear sourcing has been shifting from owned plants in Western Europe to lower cost owned production outside of Western Europe and contracted production in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
To an increasing extent, we are using independent contractors who own the raw materials and ship only finished, ready-for-sale products to VF. These hubs are responsible for product procurement, product quality assurance and supplier management and handling functions in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, respectively.
All products in the Outdoor and Sportswear Coalitions, as well as a growing portion of product requirements for our other coalitions, are obtained through these sourcing hubs The current sourcing strategy for products sold in the United States allows us to balance our needs with a mix of VF-owned and contracted production in the Western Hemisphere, combined with contracted production primarily from Asia. Owned production generally has a lower cost than contracted production.
Overall, product obtained from the Western Hemisphere has somewhat higher cost but gives us greater flexibility, shorter lead times and lower inventory levels as compared with production obtained from the Far East and other more distant resources. As a result, both sales and profits in the jeans area fell significantly. Compounding the company's problems was the growing popularity of a new line of casual men's apparel called Dockers, which had recently been introduced by Levi Strauss.
The Dockers brand cut severely into VF's sales of jeans. VF had not changed its basic Lee Rider style, and had been so involved in rejuvenating its jeans business that it had neglected to notice that other manufacturers had expanded into different trouser lines that took advantage of new apparel trends.
In the early s, VF not only began taking further measures to rejuvenate its jeans sales but also started focusing on the market segment of women aged 25 to It continued to offer increased marketing for its women's jeans lines, while also emphasizing support for other women's apparel such as the JanSport and Jantzen lines. In the company purchased the manufacturing operations of intimate apparel brands Vassarette and Form-O-Uth from Munsingwear, Inc.
With a diverse array of products under its corporate umbrella, as well as numerous distribution options, VF instituted a program to strengthen relationships with its retailers and its consumers. First, VF began investing more time and money into researching the buying patterns, needs, and lifestyles of its consumers, so as to better serve them. The company then offered its retailers increased advertising and merchandising support based on the results of its consumer research.
The information obtained through market research was also helpful in determining which brands to emphasize at any given point in time. Furthermore, VF's proprietary Market Response System was introduced, providing an electronic link between retailers' sales floors and corresponding VF divisions and allowing VF to keep its products in stock at all times. VF also saw continued growth as a result of its ongoing acquisition program.
In the company purchased three European intimate apparel companies. The Spanish company Vives Vidal, S. With the purchases, VF's international division posted a sales increase of 52 percent for Following that record year, Pugh handed down his role as president to Mackey J. McDonald, while still remaining at the company's helm as chairman and CEO. McDonald was a one-time president of the Wrangler division who had worked his way through the ranks since joining VF in Together, the two led VF through a year of rejuvenated jeans sales, with the exception of the Girbaud division, which began experiencing a decline.
Completed in January were the acquisitions of Nutmeg Industries, Inc. VF's Bassett-Walker division actually benefited from these acquisitions as well, as it became the main supplier of knitwear for the two companies, and therefore increased its output. The year was also characterized by cooperative endeavors between different VF divisions and other well-known companies.
For example, H. Cutler teamed up with Walt Disney Company to create playwear featuring characters from the movie The Lion King, all of which sold out quickly and prompted the creation of similar items the following year featuring Pocahontas. Also, H. Cutler and Healthtex combined to introduce a Fisher-Price brand of children's discount clothing. Jantzen worked with Nike , Inc. At the end of the year, Pugh once again handed down one of his roles at VF to McDonald, who added the responsibilities of being CEO to his list of duties as company president.
Pugh, who had overseen the company's growth from two brands to nearly two dozen, remained with the company as its chairman. Entering the late s, a good majority of VF's products were competing in mature markets, which dictated that the company's future growth was contingent on deriving ways to gain market share.
In VF's favor was the evolving trend in many businesses toward dressing more casually at work. But rather than rely solely on such consumer trends and buying patterns, VF began actively formulating new methods to reach consumers and provide them with the best customer service possible, while at the same time increasing name brand recognition.
For example, the company began testing a new interactive touch-screen computer program in stores called the Lee FitFinder, aimed at helping customers determine the best sizes and styles for their individual body types. This falloff highlighted the need for cost containment, particularly in an era in which consumers were increasingly seeking quality products at less-than-premium prices. One initiative to contain costs undertaken in the late s was to move more of the manufacturing operations offshore.
At the end of , VF announced that it would close nine U. At the time, the company had about 80 percent of its manufacturing in the United States, and it was aiming to reduce this figure to 65 percent. Around this same time, VF began manufacturing and marketing Lee jeans in China through a joint venture in the province of Guangdong.
One of the first initiatives that McDonald launched after becoming CEO was a program called "consumerization," in which the company aimed to reorient all of its operations--including manufacturing, marketing, systems technology--toward meeting the needs of customers. VF needed a new organizational structure to support the new strategy because the old divisional arrangement was too complicated.
Starting in the company's 17 domestic and foreign divisions were consolidated into five operating units called "coalitions": Jeanswear, Intimate Apparel, Knitwear, Playwear, and International. Later in VF expanded its jeans portfolio with the purchase of the Brittania brand from Levi Strauss.
Brittania was a mass-market brand that VF subsequently repositioned as a fashion-forward, young men's jeans brand. Then in October the company announced that it would break with its Pennsylvania roots by moving the corporate headquarters from Wyomissing to Greensboro, North Carolina, in order to locate the corporate staff closer to where much of the firm's marketing and support units were positioned.
The move was completed in June VF's factory outlet in Wyomissing, the company's largest, stayed put. VF succeeded in bolstering its intimate apparel lines by acquiring Bestform Group Inc.
All Listings. Corporation is an apparel, footwear and accessories company. The Company is engaged in the design, procurement, production, marketing and distribution of branded lifestyle apparel, footwear and related products. The Company's segments include Outdoor, Active and Work.
It owns a portfolio of brands in the outerwear, footwear, apparel, backpack, luggage and accessories categories. Its products are marketed to consumers through its wholesale channel, primarily in specialty stores, national chains, mass merchants, department stores, independently operated partnership stores and with strategic digital partners. Its products are also marketed to consumers through its own direct-to-consumer operations, which include VF-operated stores, concession retail stores, brand e-commerce sites and other digital platforms.
Contact Info. United States. Executive Leadership. Steven E. Matt Puckett.
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