VF Corp. Shifts Brand Leadership, Management Around Core and Emerging Brands
VF Corp. revealed Tuesday it has made several organizational and management changes around its core and emerging brands portfolio.
With these changes, the leaders of VF’s three core brands — Vans, The North Face and Timberland — and its emerging brands (all other brands in its portfolio) will now report directly to Steve Rendle, chairman, president and chief executive officer of VF Corp.
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Reporting to Rendle will be Steve Murray, who has been named global brand president, The North Face; Doug Palladini, global brand president, Vans; Martino Scabbia Guerrini, president of the EMEA Region and interim global brand president for Timberland, and Kevin Bailey, president of the Asia Pacific Region and Emerging Brands.
Murray was previously president of the Americas region, and in his role at The North Face, succeeds Arne Arens, who has stepped down to pursue other opportunities outside VF. In line with the company’s transformation initiative, VF has eliminated the role of president of the Americas.
Scabbia Guerrini continues to lead the Timberland brand, while the company seeks a permanent global brand president.
“As we work to become a more integrated brand-building company, we must operate differently and manage our core and emerging brands in differentiated ways in order to help each of them achieve their full potential,” said Rendle. “As we do this, it’s critical that we place our strongest talent on our most important opportunities to drive long-term sustainable growth across our portfolio and in all geographies.”
Murray has had a 30-year career leading global apparel and footwear brands. He served as president of Vans following VF’s acquisition of the brand in 2004 and was named president of VF’s Action Sports Coalition in 2009. He has also held leadership roles as ceo of Airwair International (Dr. Martens), global brand president of Urban Outfitters and EMEA president for Deckers Brands. Earlier he was the global head of apparel for Reebok International.
Rendle added, “Steve is an incredibly strong and well-respected leader who knows our industry inside and out. I look forward to working even more closely with him, Doug, Martino and Kevin to accelerate our business model transformation and pursue the many opportunities ahead for all brands in the VF portfolio.”
In addition to VF’s brand leadership, the company’s enterprise function leaders also continue to report to Rendle as members of VF’s executive leadership team.
As reported in July, VF Corp. took a hard hit in the fiscal first quarter, where losses totaled $285.6 million, down from earnings of $49.23 million a year earlier. Revenues fell 47.5 percent to $1.1 billion from $2.1 billion.
Sales at Vans declined 52 percent while The North Face was down 45 percent, Timberland was off 43 percent and Dickies declined 16 percent. The picture was brighter online with VF’s digital revenues climbing 78 percent.
VF will report second-quarter results Friday.
