VF’s mission
VF Corporation was founded in 1889, there’s always had a passion for the real letter makes and believes that the deep understanding of the need to the consumer. This is very proven through VF’s success through the years. Recently brands like Timberland vans Wrangler North face and a great selling points for the company. Because they have so many brands they are able to market to a wide range of customers.

VF’s Customers
Since VF has so many different lines of clothing and footwear it can reach customers in all walks of life, in fact VF has even started to make a name for herself as an international company. VF is devoted to its customers and satisfying its customers needs, in order to do this it has to constantly innovating, new products and new trends different fashions.
VF’s Customer Values
Yes customers value quality products, products that are both functional and aesthetically pleasing. VF prides itself in being on the cutting edge of the fashion industry at all times. For example bands has become the skate shoe of choice, creating a clothing line as well, and a recent years has become even more fashionable. Wrangler’s timelessness as a jeans maker ensures the company’s continued success because genes never really go out of fashion.
VF’s Results
As a result VF is worth over $11 billion, and it prides itself as being one of the most diversified apparel and footwear companies in the world. PF attributes the success to a highly diversified highly effective business model. VF covers apparel from outdoor to sports to jeans wearing casual to footwear and imagewear.
VF’s Plan
The goal of VF has always been to exceed customer expectations. To satisfy the school it looks for associates who are like-minded with the company. People who are passionate about the fashion industry and want to deliver a superior product. Currently the fastest growing division in VF is the outdoor and sport division. This division consists of Reef Timberland vans JanSport and The North face. In the future these brands should see the most growth.
“With a goal of reaching $17.3 billion in revenues by 2017 – driven primarily by strong growth from our highly profitable Outdoor & Action Sports, international and direct-to-consumer businesses – we expect our earnings per share to reach $18.00.

During the next five years, we are targeting a 300 basis point improvement in gross margin, to 49.5 percent, and a 250 basis point increase in our operating margin, to 16 percent, when compared to our 2012 results.

Our international business, which is expected to grow at an average compounded annual rate of 13 percent, should reach 43 percent of total VF revenues in 2017, up from 37 percent achieved in 2012. Additionally, our direct-to-consumer business is targeted to reach $4.4 billion by 2017, and should account for 25 percent of VF’s total revenues by the end of the next five years.” (VF website)

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What is VF’s mission?

VF Corporation is a worldwide leader in branded jeans, footwear, and other apparel.  The VF Corporation has been around for 115 years, and prides itself on the values of passion, commitment, innovation, and vision.  VF Jeanswear conducts their business according to the following mission statement: “We will create the leading jeans and lifestyle apparel company in North America by offering our consumers branded product solutions at compelling value.”

Who are VF’s customers?

VF does not deal directly with shoppers but sells their merchandise to various retailers, the largest being Walmart, Kmart, and Target.  VF has three separate marketing units: Mass, Middle, and Specialty, each with different retail stores selling different VF brands and products.

What do VF’s customers value?

VF customers value the quality of the merchandise they are purchasing for the price they are paying.  With the slogan “We fit your life”, VF knows how important it is for their products to meet the everyday needs of their customers in order to keep them happy and loyal.  One of the presenters made an interesting point today about marketing the VF brand: “It’s not what we say it is, it’s what they say it is.  VF values their customers’ opinions and wants to always meet their apparel needs.

What are VF’s results?

At a net value of over $11 billion, VF Corporation is the world’s largest apparel company, and they have been surpassing their desired growth rates year after year.  VF has representation in over 60 countries and produced 486 million units last year alone.  With their stock price at an increase of 69%, they have been experiencing nothing but success and have brought in a significantly large amount of business in the last few years.

What is VF’s plan?

VF Jeanswear understands that maximizing business today is critical for future growth.  At around $2 billion now, VF Jeanswear has a goal of becoming a $3 billion company within the next five years.  Their Five Year Plan includes lifestyle brand extension, bringing in new consumers such as women and Hispanics, and creating new wholesale accounts and channels.  VF Corporation as a whole hopes to reach $17.3 billion by 2017 and also to continue to expand geographically.

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Today we drove over to the corporate headquarters of jeanswear for the VF Corporation, which is located in Greensboro. We had the opportunity to hear multiple employees speak on their positions in the company, as well as, how their respective departments contribute to generating profit and customer satisfaction. Organized in 1899, VF is a worldwide leader in brand lifestyle apparel, footwear, and related products.  The company is organized by five dfferent coalitions: outdoor & action sports, jeanswear, imagewear, sportswear, and contemporary brands. They produce 28% and source 72% of 450 million units annually across 36 brands. Having about 57,000 employees in 150 different countries, VF produces about 60% of their products internationally, the premier locations being Mexico, Honduras, and Bangladesh. VF Corporation has recorded $10.9 billion in revenue and $1.5 billion in operating income for this past year.

The mission of VF Corporation is to create the leading jeans and lifestyle apparel company in North America by offering consumers brand product solutions at compelling value. Their goal is to constantly exceed the expectations of their consumers, shareholders, and business partners. By using deep research and insights, the innovative company combines the art and science of apparel in an effort to create products that excite customers and inspire brand loyalty.

VF Corporation’s customer base extends to people all across the globe seeking to purchase quality lifestyle apparel. Typically these customers buy the company’s five largest brands, The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Wrangler, and Lee. VF’s sales are highly diversified as 25% occur via e-commerce or owned stores (~1,100) and 40% of sales occur outside the United States. The business has 32 distribution centers that provide their products to big-business customers such as Walmart, Target, K-Mart, Kohls, Macys, Sears, and JC Penney, who then sell the products to individual customer. Tractor Supply and Boot Barn are examples of smaller companies that also purchase certain products from VF.

The customers of VF Corporation value a unique, quality product that caters to their individual style. A great example of this is Wrangler’s “U” shaped jeans as they provide more comfort and durability for an outdoorsy type person. Another example is how they produce three different types of Wrangler jeans to appeal to the western look. Their customers also value having a variety of color combinations (about 760,000) and textures to choose from when purchasing the products. Furthermore, they value having an influential voice in what they what from VF’s brands. As Chris stated, the company’s brands are “what the customers say they are”.

The results show that VF Corporation does an excellent job of living up to what they promise and that they remain the best in their field. In 2012, the company recorded revenues of 10.9 billion dollars and operating income of 1.5 billion dollars. If this isn’t profitable enough, those numbers are both expected to grow, estimating nearly 17 billion dollars in revenue by 2019. Producing about 15 units per second, VF corporation stands as one of the most efficient manufacturers in their field as well. Even during tough economic circumstances, the company’s stock continues to grow, having gone up an astounding 69% in the last year. Because VF never accepts to be less than the top two in what they do, their results should be just as good in the future.

Before VF creates a plan, they focus on addressing the “Who, What, & How”. Because there is not big business in the department stores, yet still significant growth opportunity, VF Corporation plan is to generate revenue quicker through improving their action sports department and turn profit into acquisitions. Chris said that the strategy for meeting this goal is to find a way to appeal to new customers, make lifestyle brand extensions, generate new wholesale accounts, and provide directly to the customer. He provided us with a pyramid looking graph that showed how the company moves forward, which entails maximizing what already exists, building leverage, igniting expansion, and exploring new possibilities. VF is also seeking to turn the jeanswear department into a 3 billion dollar business.

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Today we visited VF Jeanswear headquarters and not only learned about VF Jeanswear but also VF as a whole. VF is a global apparel company that is made up of many different brands. There brands are known all over but I had no clue certain brands were owned by them.
What is VF Jeanswear’s mission?

Their mission statement 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’s mission statement is very true for what they offer and they work hard to accomplish their success.

Who is VF Jeanswear’s customer?

VF attracts a variety of customers. They have over 30 brands associated with their company that vary in categories from jeans to shoes to outerwear. VF Jeanswear on the other hand attracts a multiple people in the same group. Mostly men in the forty-age range, handy around the house, love sports and being active. They advertise to the all around American man. VF Jeanswear also has a separate advertising for the more western side of their customers. They split this category up into three sections; authentic western, new western, and retro western. Each section has separate advertising, endorsers, and ads.  VF Jeanswear also thinks that is important to please the customers that they attract and not change to attract different customers. They believe that they need to listen to which group their customers say they attract rather than what customers they would like to attract.

What does their customer value?

The customer values the quality of the jeans at a reasonable price. VF Jeanswear thinks that it is important to stand by its value of their jeans they promote. These values are that the jeans are durable comfort, last long, rugged, and deliver the spirit.

What are VF Jeanswear’s results?

VF Jeanswear has been a very successful company and continues to see success. They sell 486 million units per year, which is about 15 units per second. VF Jeanswear is the largest jean producer. Mexico produce 22% of their product, china 21% and the rest is varied throughout. VF Jeanswear makes about a little over 2 billion dollars in revenue. Their revenue has been increasing over the years showing a positive increase for the future.

What is VF Jeanswear plan?

VF Jeanswear plans on increasing their revenue to $3 billion by 2015. They have a five-step process to achieve this goal and maintain success. The five steps include core business, direct-to-consumer, new wholesale accounts and channels, lifestyle brand extensions, and new consumers. By focusing on each one of these steps they hope it will increase their success and profit. VF also hopes to gain more brands and cover more categories of clothing. For example they are trying to produce more shirts and shoes. They believe by expanding distribution, and extend the brand will increase their revenue faster.

Overall I thought this visit was very interesting. I enjoy country music and am an equestrian so I am very familiar with the wrangler brand. I thought it was a great marketing tool to give us all a gift. It makes them a favorable company. I thought that the steps they are taking to gain more success will be very beneficial to the company.

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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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Today’s visit to VF Corporation was thoroughly informative. When the initial presenter asked our class who had heard of VF or owned any of its clothing, I did not raise my hand because I assumed I was unfamiliar with the brand. However, after witnessing the presentation and looking through one of the pamphlets we were supplied with listing all of its sub-brands, I realized I am very familiar with VF’s products. Some of VF’S clothing lines include: Wrangler, Lee, The North Face, Vans, Jansport, Nautica, Timberland, Kipling, Reef, Seven for all Mankind, Ella Moss, and Splendid.

VF is definitely one of the largest companies that our class has gotten the opportunity to learn about; its annual revenue for 2013 capped at eleven billion dollars. A significant attribute to this company’s large net worth is its globalization; its products are both made and sold world-wide, as opposed to some of the companies we visited where the majority of the factories are in America and the products are distributed mainly within this country. VF’s mission is to create the leading jeans and lifestyle apparel company in North America by offering their consumers branded product solutions at compelling value.

Because VF has such a large amount of sub-brands within its company, the target markets range correspondingly. For example, Wrangler and Lee are both extremely popular denim brand for men and women, particularly in the south and Midwest based off of their advertisements. These two brands are known for being high quality, comfortable, and affordable, as well as reach out to the down-and-dirty man or woman. The North Face is a brand that is purchased worldwide and is known for its high-tech features and high quality fabrics, and is there for a more expensive sub-brand of VF. Its consumer is generally willing to spend a little more and most likely has a disposable income. Each brand has its own target, and therefore VF’s target consumer ranges from all ages, to all incomes, to cultural backgrounds, especially across the United States, and also globally.

VF’s company values are innovation, marketing, performance metrics, open network partners, and a solid management process. They also take authenticity, practicality, and trustworthiness within their company and for their products very seriously. With 15 units per second being made, quality and precision are definitely important factors in this company’s success. VF’s customers value receiving quality clothing and shoe products at reasonable prices (corresponding to each brand’s target market).

For the future, VF hopes to continue to globalize and eventually reach annual revenue of eighteen billion dollars in 2017. This goal is part of a five-year plan that the company has made for itself. With electronics, healthcare, and gas (necessities) taking up a lot of the economic GDP, clothing companies in general face severe competition, as the economy is not as strong as it used to be. Therefore, VF will need to have a competitive advantage in maintaining their profits and superseding them in order to meet their goal. I believe that this company’s results are positive because they have positive revenue, their stock is doing well, and their products are being purchased across the nation and globe. With the well-known and frequently purchased sub-brand products that this company has, they will most likely meet their goals so long as their marketing reaches the correct audiences.

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Today, our class visited VF Jeanswear which was founded in 1899 by John Barbey and a group of investors. VF corporation is an American clothing company whose corporate headquarters are located in Greensboro, North Carolina, which is the location we visited today. Vf Jeanswear is organized into five coalitions, Outdoor & Action SPorts, Jeanswear, Imagewear, Sportswear, and Contemporary Brands.

VF’s mission is to create the leading jeans and lifestyle apparel company in North America by offering their consumers branded product solutions at compelling value. VF has a wide range of consumers all of which associate with one or many of VF’s brands. VF’s constant goal is to satisfy their customers and make a product that fits the customer they are trying to sell to. In doing this, they are constantly researching new trends and sticking with traditional looks that they know will sell. As we were told today, sometimes its about making the right product rather than the best product. At first, I thought this was a little unsettling, but then I considered the target customer, the “Wrangler Warren”, who just wants a comfortable, durable, and affordable product.

VF has customers across the globe ranging from the 36 brands they produce for, to the mass marketing retailers they distribute to. At VF Jeanswear their most popular brands that they produce for is Wrangler, Lee, Rock & Republic (recently acquired in 2012), Riders, and more. For Wrangler, their customer is mostly those who embrace a rugged lifestyle, like the Western Cowboy style which is a large portion of their market. Whether its the traditional cowboy or the new-age cowboy, Wrangler has different ways of advertising and attracting their target audience.  The mass market retailers that they sel to include Target, Walmart, K Mart and more.

VF’s customers ultimately value affordability and durability, especially in their jeanswear. While most companies look to explore the new trend on the market, VF and Wrangler see that as a risk, and instead stay with the traditional look that they know will always create profit. They are still always improving their product but they always stay with a more traditional look. Since VF sells to Kohls and Wal Mart and stores similar to that, they have to keep their product simple and affordable, which the customer values.

VF’s results have been through the roof in the past couple of years with the explosions in business of brands like Vans and Northface which are constantly growing. VF produces about 450 million units a year and is continuing to grow. VF had a profit of over 11 billion dollars last year and is constantly increasing. VF Jeanswear made 2 billion dollars last year, and the business is growing at a steady pace.

VF has bright plans for the future, and is planning to make 12.7 billion dollars in 2015 and up to 17 billion dollars in 2017. VF Jeanswear is planning on becoming a 3 billion dollar business and gain a great deal of new consumers. They are constantly in search of lifestyle brand extensions, new acquisitions, and new consumers. The hope to continue profitable growth and continue on the trend of sustainability. As most large clothing companies they are hoping to continue to expand and get their brands to become  more global.

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Today we visited VF Jeanswear company located in Greensboro, North Carolina. Before the trip to VF I was not entirely sure what the company was and what exactly they did. I soon learned that VF was a huge corporation with many brands, commonly known around the world. These brands under VF included Wrangler, Vans, Timberland, The North Face and many more. VF focuses on their strategy of having a deep passion for their products and a understanding of the consumer they are selling to. They believe this straggly is the Art and Science of apparel. Today, specifically we focused on VF Jeanswear.

What is  VF Jeanswear’s mission?

VF Jeanswear mission reads, “we will create the leading jeans and lifestyle apparel company in North and South America by offering our consumers branded product solutions at compelling value”. VF takes pride in the quality of their products they are selling to their consumers. They want their consumers to be 100% satisfied with the products they are receiving and make sure there is a product for each and every individual.

Who is VF Jeanswear consumer?

VF Jeanswear does not sell their products to individual people, instead they sell to companies such as Khols, Sears, Walmart, etc. VF Jeanswear has to ensure the products they are releasing to these department stores are going to sell and make profit. Because of this expectation of creating the best products, VF spends a lot of time studying the trends of fashion. They want to make sure they don’t create a product that is a fad at the moment and will go out in the next month.

What do their customers value?

The customers of VF value the quality of their products. VF products ensure that their customers will experience apparel that is durable, comfortable and long lasting. VF’s products surprisingly are sold at a reasonable price so many individuals can purchase them. Their customers also value the fact that their is a products for the different kinds of people. During the presentation we were told about the 3 different jeans that they sold: a jean for the “Authentic Cowboy”, a “New Cowboy” and lastly a “Retro Cowboy”. They had a specific jean for three different kinds of cowboys, because they want to meet the needs of everyone.

What are the results?

VF is a global leader in branded lifestyle appear and footwear. Today they are $11 billion powerhouse company in apparel and footwear VF has such a diverse portfolio of products, allowing them to become one of the best.

What is VF plan?

VF has a goal of reaching $17.3 billion in revenue by the year 2017, which they believe will primarily come from a strong growth in their highly profitable Outdoor and action sports. VF wants to continue to transform their portfolio with more global growing lifestyle brands, as well as continuing to nurture their already established brands.

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Today, we visited VF’s Jeanswear division corporate headquarters. As a member of the supply chain, VF does not work directly with its customers, but they are considered the largest apparel producer in North America, and by extension, the world. VF went from consistently generating 5-6 billion USD annually and exploded into years of 7-10 billion USD in annual revenue (10.9 billion USD in 2012). Of that, VF Jeanswear generated approximate 20% (2.2 billion USD). VF’s stock rose 69% last fiscal year, and the Jeanswear division has 19 factories in the Americas. VF’s product lines and brands are divided into coalitions, which determine what kind of “division” they compose (lifestyle coalitions are high growth, heritage being low growth). VF Jeanswear is divided into six different marketing units: Mass (geared towards retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target), Lee (Mid-tier retailers such as JC Penny, Kohl’s, etc), Specialty (Wrangler/Western lines through Tractor Supply co.), and their Rock n’ Republic Jeans line.
What is VF’s mission? Again, parallels to other “missions” arose with the “low cost, high quality” vision, but VF really spent a lot of time emphasizing market penetration. As an already expansive company, I believe that VF’s current mission is to expand up the supply chain, and in the future potentially figuring out how to handle the customer-facing facet of the business.
Who is VF’s customer currently? VF is a part of the supply chain, therefore they only help process and produce goods to a certain extent, without ever actually seeing them sold, which takes place through a myriad of retailers, even just within the jeans division. Their target market is always changing, and their detachment from the consumer directly leads them to spend a lot of capital on trend research.
What does the customer value? The emphasis from the two marketing representatives was on accessibility and reliability. The slew of different brands and lines that VF offers has the intention of offering a more personal fit between a customer and the brand they choose. Ideally, loyalty is the goal sought for my the marketing division of VF.
What are their results? VF has grown its annual revenues over the past 10 years form only 5 billion to 10.9 billion USD. They have expanded into many other brands, and have grown their international presence as well.
What are VF’s long term goals going forward? First, they mention the importance of sustainability for their brands: to keep them established and consistently customer-recognized. Brand differentiation was another big key that they brought up when I asked them about the problem of cannibalization.

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Today we visited the VF Jeanswear company. Prior to the visit I had never heard of the company, I had always assumed that brands such as Wrangler, Lee and Riders were completely independent companies. From the moment we walked in it was a highly educational experience. Because the facility wasn’t a factory we did not have a tour this led for plenty of time (and overtime) to be informed on multiple departments of work that they did there. The place we visited was the VF Jeanswear cooperate headquarters, this was where they did all the management for the entirety of North and South America. This facility managed only a handful of companies that VF owns, specifically the jean wear. However, VF owns over twenty five companies on a worldwide scale. Their companies include impressive brands such as; The North Face, Timberland, Vans, Nautica, Eastpack, Reef and much more. VF is a very large company and operates on a worldwide scale, they have over 57,000 employees in over sixty countries.

The mission of VF Jeanswear was given to us in one of the slides presented to us today. The mission stated; “we will create the leading jeans and lifestyle apparel company in North and South America by offering our consumers branded product solutions at compelling value.” The jeans that they manage are focused around the working class individual so their product must be durable and affordable. They hope to distribute numerous styles for a diverse customer base.

The VF Jeanswear company does not have a specific customer, they are a management company. They distribute their jeans to large companies such as Walmart, Kmart, Kohls, Sears and Tractor supply. Because they are not dealing with customers directly they must do a ton of research on fashion trends and economic activity. They must prepare months in advance what product and how much to sell to these companies. They also face competition when providing their jeans to large stores. One of the speakers today talked about “swim lanes” this is when a company like Kohls will refuse to buy Wangler jeans if Walmart has them because they do not want to compete with Walmart. Large companies want to stay in their lanes and profit on a variety of products that companies like Walmart cannot provide.

The average customer that they market to as discussed today is a man that is around 43 years old, 50% percent of the time not a highschool grad, and is of the working class. These customers value the durability and comfort of the jeans that VF distributes. They also are able to offer this high quality jean at a low price so they can sell at Walmart and Kohls, allowing their target customer to be able to afford them.

As a result of this VF Jeanswear has become the number one jean distributer in the world. They have numerous factories and distributors around the world and look to expand and remain on top.

VF has many plans for the future that we heard today. Their main goal is to penetrate the department store market. As of now they have very few department store distributers and if they can acquire some they will increase profits significantly. Much like most companies VF wants to increase revenue and expand production. They hope to establish source in Africa and Europe and expand even more.

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