Reporter | Qin Siyue
Weifu has laid off employees again.
According to multiple commercial foreign media reports, VF Corporation, the parent company of trendy sports brands Vans and outdoor sports brand The North Face, announced that it will lay off 500 employees, including 30 from the group headquarters.
For this round of layoffs, Weifu stated that the purpose is to improve the operational efficiency of the group and allocate more funds for investment.
In fact, Weifu's last round of layoffs occurred only a year and three months ago. Last August, the then CEO of Weifu announced in a letter that the group would cut 600 positions. This round of layoffs accounted for 2% of Weifu's global employees at that time.
The full year financial report of Weifu Group for the 2023 fiscal year shows that Weifu's annual revenue decreased by 2% year-on-year to 11.6 billion US dollars (approximately 82.096 billion yuan), and its net profit decreased to 118 million US dollars.
From a brand perspective, Vans remains the largest contributor to the group's sales, with a total annual revenue of 3.682 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 12%. In the past two years, the North, which has been popular among Chinese consumers, has further narrowed the gap with Vans: its annual revenue was 3.613 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 11%.
It is worth noting that in the last quarter of the 2023 fiscal year, revenue of $859 million (a year-on-year increase of 12%) in the north was already higher than Vans' $857 million (a year-on-year decrease of 14%).
Other brands have their own ups and downs: Timberland and Dickies achieved annual sales of $1.784 billion and $725 million respectively, a year-on-year decrease of 2% and 13%; The other departments where Supreme is located had a total annual revenue of $1.807 billion, a slight increase of 3% year-on-year.
Looking at different regions, the Americas market remains the main market for Weifu Group: annual revenue of 6.683 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 2%. Next is the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) market, with a total annual revenue of $3.411 billion, which is basically the same as last year.
The Asia Pacific market where China is located has a revenue of $1.518 billion in the fiscal year 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 7%.
Overall, apart from the north, most of Weifu's brands have not provided ideal performance reports.
Perhaps I hope that the performance can quickly return to the growth track, as the management of Weifu Group has made many adjustments in the past two years.
Firstly, in December last year, Steve Rendle, then CEO of Weifu Group, suddenly announced his resignation. Previously, Steve Rendle had been leading Weifu Group as CEO for 5 years.
In the same year, the positions of President of Vans, the two main brands of the group, and the Global Brand in the north were also changed.
In April of this year, Altra, a running shoe brand under Weifu, and Dickies, a casual fashion brand, welcomed a new round of changes: Todd Dalhausser, the former brand president of Altra, changed his identity to become the global brand president of Dickies, and his position in Altra was replaced by Jen McLaren, the former brand president of outdoor brand Smartwood.
The group has also made significant moves in asset integration.
At the beginning of this year, Weifu Group was reviewing the "strategic alternatives" of the Global Packs department, which includes backpack brands such as Jansport, Kipling, and Eastpak. Among them, Jansport may be sold by the group for $500 million.
Meanwhile, according to multiple foreign media reports, multiple investment institutions are urging Weifu Group to sell other non core assets, including the trendy brand Supreme, which the group purchased at a high price of $2.1 billion in 2020. This trendy brand's annual revenue for the 2023 fiscal year fell from $561 million to $523 million, and net profit fell from $82.4 million to $64.8 million.
In addition to optimizing its brand, Weifu has also completed the sale of some other assets, such as selling and leasing back the group's office in Europe.
Weifu stated, "The group is evaluating and deploying a series of strategic actions to strengthen the company's financial situation, including reducing dividends, exploring the sale of non core assets, reducing costs, and eliminating non strategic expenditures, while also strengthening consumer attention through targeted investments."