Bus369: Field Experience in Business

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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VF was organized in 1899, and it is a worldwide leader in branded lifestyle apparel, footwear, related products. The company’s total revenue in 2012 nearly eleven billion dollars, and its operating income was about 1.5 billion dollars. The company has 29 manufacturing facilities and nearly 1900 contractor facilities in 60 different countries. Today our class visited one of the five VF coalitions.  The first coalition of VF is Outdoor and Action Sports. This coalition includes brands such as The North Face, Vans, and Timberland. The next coalition of VF is Imagewear. Red Cap and Bulwark are two of the brands in this coalition. Another coalition is Sportswear. Nautica and Kipling are two brands represented in this coalition. The next coalition is Contemporary Brands. We visited the fifth and final coalition of VF: Jeanswear. Jeanswear includes the popular brands Wrangler and Lee. Like the Imagewear coalition, Jeanswear has strong levels of profitability but lower growth rates.

Today our class had several speakers. The first speaker was Rustin Welton, the Chief Financial Officer for VF Jeanswear. He outlined the company as a whole for us, and then spoke specifically about VF Jeanswear.  Our next speaker, Chris Williams, talked about the strategy of the company. Jackie Sullivan talked about some of the goals for the company. Rich Blaya talked about his merchandising job. The final two speakers talked about marketing.

The mission of VF Jeanswear reads, “We will create the leading jeans and lifestyle apparel in North America by offering our consumers branded product solutions at compelling values.” VF Jeanswear has several different customers. Companies such as K-Mart, Walmart, Target, Sears, and JC Penny are examples of places where one can find VF Jeanswear. Different types of customers come to these stores to buy VF Jeanswear. Today we heard the two different targets of VF Jeanswear’s marketing. One of these is the Western style. These jeans appeal to the cowboys of America. Country stars such as Jason Aldean and George Strait help advertise these jeans. The other target of marketing is the non-Cowboys. These jeans proved a loose fit great for relaxing, working, and much more. Athletes such as Brett Favre, Dale Earnhart Jr., and Drew Brees help advertise this side of the company. Each athlete represents a different value in the jeans. Customers value what these stars are advertising: the best pair of jeans. If a customer is satisfied, he or she will continue buying from VF Jeanswear. This promotes great results for the company. Although VF Jeanswear experiences a slower growth rate than the other coalitions, as stated earlier, it still is extremely profitable. As for a future plan, it is important that VF manages its goals and aspirations. This is mostly the work of Chris Williams and his team. He said that it is important to watch the change in the following: economy, demographics, competition, supply chain, and marketplace. If VF Jeanswear can see where the challenges and opportunities lie in these changes, then the company can adequately prepare and continue to succeed in the market.

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