Mike Rees, former CFO of Reef and VF’s International Outdoor division, is joining the Burton team.
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Several leading action sports manufactureres are among the dozens of brands being charged by Tec-Technology Enabled Clothing, Inc. with patent infringement. The complaint against these companies stems from their use of “wire management capabilities for portable electronic devices” in jackets.
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Well it’s not exactly the acquisition news that’s been speculated about for months in the action sports industry, but VF Corp announced today that it has acquired the remaining two-thirds of capital stock in Mo Industries for 161-million dollars. Mo Industries is best known for contemporary sportswear lines Splendid and Ella Moss. VF had previously purchased one-third of Mo Industries stock from its owners in June 2008.
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VF, though impacted by the recession in the third quarter and expecting it to last through 2009, had a good year in 2008. I’ll go over those numbers briefly, but there’s nothing all that intriguing or educational I feel the need to spend a bunch of time on. What’s more interesting is how VF describes its direct to consumer strategy.
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A February 11 report on Bloomberg.com further explores speculation that Nike and VF Corp are interested in acquiring Quiksilver. Eric Tracy, an analyst with BB&T Capital Markets in Vienna, Virginia says If Quiksilver sells only its DC Shoes unit, for an estimated $530 million, it could reduce its $1.1 billion in debt.
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Fourth quarter comparable sales dropped 2% to $1.91 billion, compared with $1.95 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to a report on the company’s Investor Relations Web site. While overall fourth quarter numbers may have dropped, The North Face and Vans brands both posted double-digit revenue gains in Q4. Additionally, full-year sales for 2008 were up 6%, with earnings per share reaching a record $5.42, according to the article.
“Our direct-to-consumer business grew 15% in 2008 and represented 16% of total revenues, up from 14% in 2007. In the fourth quarter, our direct to consumer revenues increased 12% and represented 21% of VF’s total revenue. Retail revenues of our Vans®, The North Face®, 7 For All Mankind®, Kipling® and Napapijri® brands each grew by more than 20% in the quarter. We opened 33 stores during the quarter, including new stores for our Vans®, 7 For All Mankind®, The North Face® and Napapijri® brands. For the year, we opened a total of 89 stores, ending the year with 698 stores.”
Read the entire report HERE.
According to Brandon J. Ferro, an analyst with KeyBanc Capital Markets part of Cleveland-based KeyCorp, Quiksilver’s bid to rework some of its debt makes it less likely the company will sell some of its brands or even all of the company.
This comes after ZQK stock surged to 2.59 on Monday, January 26 after longtime speculation that it was selling DC to VF Corp reached the investor level, credited in part to an article in WWD.
The OC Business Journal reports: “An analyst on Tuesday threw coldwater on the prospects of Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. selling part or all of the company as it seeks to restructure its debt in February.”
VF Corporation (VFC) announced that it is restructuring its stable of brands. According to Eric Wiseman, VF’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, the company is creating an Action Sports Americas Coalition in order “to best capture future opportunities in these industries.” Vans President Stephen Murray has been promoted to President of the new coalition of brands, which—at this point—only includes Vans and Reef.
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VF’s January 14th press release already had my attention before the web cast of their investors presentation was released. I strongly recommend you take the time to watch the whole web cast and look at the slides. You’ll see how a well managed company is going to survive and even set themselves up to prosper during our little ongoing economic inconvenience.
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As you may remember from last year’s ICR XChange Conference, many of the major players in the action sports/ teen and young-adult apparel markets will be presenting their company’s outlooks for 2009 and beyond. To keep your finger on the pulse of what the publicly traded companies that affect our market are up to, tune in to these live Web cast presentations through out the day right here.
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