VF Corporation's Q4 Report Reveals Asia Expansion for Supreme

VF Corporation has just released its full fourth-quarter report as well as its full-year fiscal 2023 outlook. With an overall reported growth — revenue is up $11.8 billion USD (28% up, excluding acquisitions) largely attributed to The North Face brand — the report went into detail on future plans for its newly acquired Supreme brand.

While the report indicates that the performance of Surpeme was softer than planned, due to supply chain disruption, the brand’s full-price brick-and-mortar business rose by 35% with the two new stores in Europe. On top of praising the newly appointed Creative Director Tremaine Emory’s vision and understanding of the culture, Steven E. Rendle, Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, VF Corp, revealed further expansion into Asia.

In the earnings call, Rendle mentioned:

We’re able to now impact stores. We’re going to be able to remodel and relocate some stores this year. We’ve got some new Asia store opportunities coming available as we begin to look at that international expansion which was part of the acquisition thesis. And tourism is coming back. And this brand has a lot of consumers that don’t live in those markets where the stores reside and the tourism impact and opening up of markets where consumers now can come back into the stores, engage with the brand, line up for the product, again gives us another point of, I think, confidence of what this brand is capable of. And we’re seeing that here as we open – as we move through the spring season, so. I know we don’t talk a lot about this brand. It’s certainly one that we’re very proud of. There’s elements of the model that they’re pretty proprietary that makes them unique. But I think the things that we’ve talked to you about today are important proof points and parts of the strategy that will help this brand move into fiscal 2023 in a stronger position.

On top of the news for Supreme going into 2023, a few other key highlights from the report can be found below:

Q4’FY22 Financial Highlights
-Revenue $2.8 billion, up 9% (up 12% in constant dollars)
-The North Face revenue $0.8 billion, up 24% (up 26% in constant dollars)
-Vans revenue $1.0 billion, flat (up 2% in constant dollars)
-Gross margin 51.9%, down 20 basis points; Adjusted gross margin 52.2%, down 50 basis points
-Operating margin 6.8%, up 210 basis points; Adjusted operating margin 7.9%, up 120 basis points
-Earnings per share (EPS) $0.21, up 32%; Adjusted EPS $0.45, up 67%
-Return of $244 million to shareholders through $194 million in cash dividends, $50 million of shares repurchased

FY22 Financial Highlights
-Revenue $11.8 billion, up 28% (up 27% in constant dollars); excluding acquisitions, up 23%
-Gross margin 54.5%, up 180 basis points; Adjusted gross margin 54.8%, up 150 basis points, including a 20 basis point positive impact from acquisitions
-Operating margin 13.8%, up 720 basis points; Adjusted operating margin 13.1%, up 510 basis points, including a 30 basis point positive impact from acquisitions
-EPS $3.10, up 242%; Adjusted EPS up 143% to $3.18, including a $0.19 per share contribution from acquisitions
-Return of $1.1 billion to shareholders through $773 million in cash dividends, $350 million of shares repurchased

In other fashion news, Anti Social Social Club has been acquired by Marquee Brands.