What is VF’s mission?
Today we visited VF Jeanswear, a division of VF Corporation located in Greensboro NC, organized in 1899. VF Jeanswear’s mission is: “We will create the leading jeans and lifestyle apparel company in North America by offering our consumers branded product solutions at compelling value.” VF Corporation has become the largest producer of jeans in the world and a worldwide leader in branded lifestyle apparel, footwear, and related products. It was interesting to learn that so many different brands are all essentially part of VF Corporation. Companies owned by VF Corporation consist of: Wrangler, JanSport, North Face, Nautica, Vans, Timberland, Lee, Eastpak, and many more.
Who are VF’s customers?
VF has a variety of customers world-wide, but they mainly sell to five different categories; the Mass marketing, Lee, Specialty Western, Rock and Republic, and Mexico/Canada. However, we did not really go into Rock and Republic, and Mexico/Canada because they do not make near as much revenue for VF Jeanswear as the other three markets. VF sells to superstores including Walmart, K-mart and Target, and department stores including Macy’s, Sears and Kohls, and they also sell to specialty stores. VF has a highly diversified customer base, with about 40% of sales outside of the United States and about 25% of sales through e-commerce or owned stores (about 1,100 stores).
What do VF customers value?
VF customers value a high quality product, and VF as a whole offers a wide variety of options at an impressive range of prices and in a wide range of stores. VF customers also value receiving their shipments on time, and as we were told today, they sent about 600 trucks to Walmart alone on Black Friday so that they would have enough product. This is very important, because if they did not deliver their product on time they would be losing profit, and creating tension with Walmart or whatever company they are dealing with.
What are VF’s results?
VF Corporation has a total of 29,300 employees, and in 2012 VF totaled $10.9 billion in revenue and had an operating income of $1.5 billion. VF is traded publically and their stock went up 69% last year. VF Jeanswear totals $2.2 billion in revenue and produces 170 million units annually, while VF Corporation totals 486 million units annually. They told us that averages to about 15 units per second. They also told us that half of VF Jeanswear’s business comes from their Mass marketing. VF has 29 manufacturing facilities and nearly 1,900 contractor facilities in 60 countries.
What is VF’s Plan?
VF’s plan for future success is always to find ways to make quality products at cheaper prices. VF is always looking for new consumers, for instance they have a much higher male consumer base than female base, though both number have grown drastically in the last 5 years. They told us of their supply chain goals; Growth, or possibly downsizing in China’s case, Speed, Service, Cost, GM, Asset efficiency, Innovation and Sustainability. And seeing as they have been around for over 115 years now, they are doing a pretty good job.
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