VF Corp names new CFO

Dive Brief:

In its second executive announcement this week, VF Corporation on Thursday announced the appointment of Matt Puckett to chief financial officer, according to a company press release. Puckett succeeds Scott Roe, who was with the company for 25 years.
Puckett has been with the company for 20 years and served in a series of financial roles, including as the CFO of Timberland after VF's 2011 acquisition of the brand. Puckett will assume his new role at the end of May and will report to CEO Steve Rendle.
VF on Wednesday announced the appointment of Kristin Harrer, who will lead Van's global marketing and creative teams as global chief marketing officer. Harrer comes to the company from Dollar Shave Club, where she served as its chief marketing officer.

Dive Insight:

VF Corporation is naming executives to key positions as it, like other apparel and footwear retailers, finds its way forward in a market that has been changed by COVID-19. In its most recent quarter, VF net revenues were down 6% to $3 billion, with the Vans brand down 10% in the Americas and 6% globally.

The apparel segment overwhelmingly took a hit in the past year, especially in the early days of the global healthcare crisis, exacerbating problems that were already becoming apparent as consumers became more cautious with discretionary spending.

Yet, VF engaged in bold moves, most notably with its $2.1 billion acquisition of streetwear brand Supreme at the end of 2020. The purchase of a high-profile brand may be key to its growth strategy, as the company has been adjusting its portfolio over the past few years, including its 2018 spinoff of Lee and Wrangler and its pruning of smaller, underperforming brands.

That work may pay off as fashion begins to recover and consumers refresh their wardrobes as the vaccine becomes more widely available and people return to events and office life. "We expect that total revenues will inflect back above 2019 quarterly levels by F2Q (Sept)," Credit Suisse analysts led by Michael Binetti wrote in a recent note about VF Corporation. However, they said "Vans' physical stores are its most important drivers of consumer engagement in their communities, and those stores are still well below pre-COVID traffic levels."

The VF announcements also follow a number of other recent leadership appointments for the conglomerate, including naming Jan Van Mossevelde as the global brand president of Icebreaker and Susie Mulder as the global brand president of Timberland.