V.F. Corporation

Hello, and welcome to the VF Corporation third quarter fiscal 2022 conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Allegra Perry, Vice President, Investor Relations. Allegra, please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to VF Corporation's third quarter fiscal 2022 conference call. Participants on today's call will make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These uncertainties are detailed in documents filed regularly with the SEC. Unless otherwise noted, amounts referred to on today's call will be on an adjusted constant dollar basis, which we've defined in the press release that was issued this morning. We use adjusted constant dollar amounts as lead numbers in our discussions, because we believe they more accurately represent the true operational performance and underlying results of our business. You may hear us refer to reported amounts which are in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Reconciliations of GAAP measures to adjusted amounts can be found in the supplemental financial tables included in the press release. Lists identify and quantify all excluded items and provide management's view of why this information is useful to investors. Due to the significant impact of the coronavirus pandemic on prior year figures, today's call will also contain certain comparisons to the same period in fiscal 2020 for additional context. These comparisons are all on a reported dollar basis. On June 28, 2021, the company completed the sale of its occupational workwear business. Accordingly, the company has reported the related held for sale assets and liabilities of this business as assets and liabilities of discontinued operations and included the operating results and cash flows of this business in discontinued operations for all periods through the date of the sale. Unless otherwise noted, results presented on today's call are based on continuing operations. Joining me on the call will be VF's Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Steve Rendell, and EVP and CFO, Matt Bucket. Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call for questions. Steve?

Thank you, Allegra, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our third quarter call. We delivered strong results in Q3 with organic revenue growth of 16% and organic earnings growth of 32% amid continuing macro headwinds. Our business is strong and healthy. We achieved our Q3 plan driven by a robust holiday performance and an exceptional quarter from the North Face, which gained further momentum and surpassed $1.2 billion in revenue, a record in its history. I continue to be inspired by the incredible efforts of our teams are making across the globe to advance our transformation strategy while navigating unprecedented challenges. We've come a long way during a difficult 24 months, continuing to invest in the business to generate exciting broad-based momentum across the portfolio while maintaining financial discipline. I'm confident we're well-positioned for accelerated growth moving forward. I'll start off my prepared remarks with a brief update on the consumer environment. Globally, we continue to see robust demand for outdoor and active categories. Outdoor participation continues to grow, supported by secular trends toward more active, healthy lifestyles. Across the Americas and EMEA regions, consumers started the holiday season early and were returning to in-store shopping prior to surges in the Omicron variant, which negatively impacted retail store traffic later in the quarter. Given the more pronounced macro disruption we have seen unfolding in the APAC region for consecutive quarters, I want to spend some time unpacking the situation in China and what our teams are actively doing to navigate these headwinds. Following a strong rebound in the first half of 2021, the Chinese economy has seen slowing growth, reflecting the government's aggressive policy response to virus surges, pressuring consumption in the back half of the calendar year. To mitigate these headwinds, our teams are maximizing new social commerce opportunities to offset lower traffic on certain digital Titan platforms with plans to amplify key festival activations with new targeted marketing stories and product drops. We're focused on increasing conversion in owned and partner brick-and-mortar stores through operational enhancements while improving partner inventory levels. I'm confident in the capabilities we're building to advance our transformation and growth strategy in China. Following the move of our brand leadership to Shanghai, our teams are focused on increasing product relevance and evolving channel and product segmentation, embracing new emerging channels, elevating store formats, and omni-channel integration. Longer term, we continue to see significant distribution and brand awareness opportunity in China with a rapidly growing consumer base and outsized interest in our core categories. I remain confident in our strategy to generate profitable growth in this important region. Moving into our brand highlights for the quarter. I'll start with NorthBase, our largest brand this quarter, representing over a third of VF's Q3 revenues. TNF delivered the largest quarter in its history, surpassing $1 billion for the first time with revenues of over $1.2 billion in the period. This was truly fantastic performance during the brand's highest volume quarter of the year. Global T&F revenues grew 27% above pre-pandemic levels with continued broad-based strength across regions, channels, and product categories. The North Face also delivered significant improvements in profitability with strong brand positioning driving higher quality sales. All regions were ahead of plan and surpassed prior peak levels. We continue to see broad-based growth across categories with snow sports, sportswear, and logo wear all growing over 20%. On-mountain products grew strongly, particularly in products offering key technologies. Effective and future-light continued to resonate with consumers in footwear and outerwear, and the athletic-inspired Wander collection continues to see significant growth. Off-mountain lifestyle products also showed ongoing strong momentum. The newly launched Techwear line, mountain-inspired clothes designed for the city, had sell-through in excess of 60%. Selfless grew over 60%. and lifestyle footwear grew 30%. The brand is truly driving broad-based strength across categories. Limited edition releases continued to drive brand heat. The second chapter of the TNF Gucci collaboration has generated over 2 billion impressions since launching in December. And the campaign, It's More Than a Jacket, launched this fall, which has been one of the most successful campaigns in terms of audience reach and engagement. earning nearly 200 media placements and driving 1 billion impressions, spurred by celebrity and influencer endorsements. The campaign included strong product stories, including Conrad Anker's three-piece collection drop, which is nearly 100% sell-through. The Explore Pass loyalty program grew exponentially this quarter, adding 1.1 million new members and 33% more sign-ups during holiday weeks relative to last year, driven by the digital channel. Total membership is now approaching 9 million, growing about 30% fiscal year to date. Highly engaged loyalty members continue to drive higher AOV versus non-members with higher order frequency and now represent the majority of revenue in each DVC channel. We remain encouraged by the brand's broad-based momentum, fueled by innovation, increasing year-round relevancy, and ongoing tailwinds for the outdoor marketplace. Looking ahead, following the strong holiday outperformance of TNF, we're raising our full year 2022 outlook to growth of 29 to 30%, representing 18 to 19% growth relative to fiscal 20. This compares to our previous expectation of 16 to 18% growth versus fiscal 20. Before moving on to VANS, I want to take a moment to address the TNF leadership change underway. As we announced earlier this month, Steve Murray is retiring and will be replaced by Nicole Otto later this summer. Nicole's experience and deep understanding of consumer engagement strategies make her ideally suited to take the helm and further accelerate growth. We're excited to welcome her to the VF family. And of course, thank you, Steve Murray, for all that you've accomplished during your long, successful career at VF. You're leaving TNF with exceptionally strong brand momentum. Moving on to Vans, which grew 8% in Q3, representing modest growth relative to pre-pandemic levels. Global digital growth continues to be strong, up 54% relative to fiscal 20, driving 9% B2C growth relative to pre-pandemic levels. In the first nine months of the year, Vans generated an additional $232 million revenue across its digital platforms relative to fiscal 20. While we have made great progress in certain regions and products, On a global basis, vans did not meet expectations in Q3, with mixed holiday performance reflecting heightened disruption across China and a slower-than-expected recovery in classics footwear. The Americas business was a highlight, delivering a sequential improvement, with the U.S. market posting its first positive growth versus fiscal 20 since the start of the pandemic, fueled by digital growth of approximately 50%. Global classic footwear showed encouraging sequential improvement, but remains below pre-pandemic levels. While we're making strides to reignite this category, we are simultaneously driving growth in other areas of the brand, which are gaining share within the mix. We continue to see broad-based strength across the progression footwear line, highlighted by MTE up 56% and ultra range up 30% relative to fiscal 20 levels. Progression now represents nearly a quarter of the Vans footwear mix. Apparel grew 29% in Q3, representing 12% growth versus fiscal 20, with broad-based, diversified growth across customer segments, including increased traction in youth. Vans continues to develop exciting product stories, which will launch in coming months. The main skate story will be the Lizzie, the first signature shoe from Olympic athlete Lizzie Armato, reinforcing the brand's leadership position in skate and to women's sports. The Lizzie will incorporate EcoCush cushioning and the new 3D Duracap toe for increased durability, MicroWaffle tread, and six-stick rubber for maximum grip. The progression pipeline is also strong with several key launches ready for fiscal 23, including Circle V launching next month. This is a new silhouette for Vans and is the brand's first shoe designed around the concept of circularity. Vans consumers remain highly engaged with the brand. Vans family membership is approaching 21 million globally, increasing nearly 50% over the past 12 months, with growing activations across all regions. While we are encouraged by the sequential improvements of the business fundamentals, we acknowledge that the Vans brand continues to perform below the expectations set in May 21. Our teams are focused on three drivers of the weaker-than-expected performance, China, plastic footwear, and brand heat. Starting with China, We are delivering China-relevant product and content through a greater level of localization, evolving our digital strategy, including leveraging social commerce opportunities, elevating our in-store environment and operations to drive traffic and conversion, and deepening community engagement with our growing customer base, including family initiatives, where we now have close to 2 million members added since launch in July. Moving to Classics, we are returning to an always-on Classics demand creation model with a higher degree of innovation in design supported by enhanced and targeted marketing support with a dedicated campaign launching globally throughout this year, starting with the U.S. market next month. Applying the learnings from the Skate High campaign was launched during Back to School and has led to over 20% growth over the past two quarters from that silhouette. And finally, Brand Heat. While Vann's brand health is strong, its brand heat remains below pre-pandemic levels and has significant potential and scope to be reignited. To address this, we are focused on increasing the flow of innovation and product stories, increasing wearing occasions for existing consumers, and investing in attracting and retaining new consumers. We remain encouraged by the early results of our 52-week drop strategy, which we are leveraging to reward our loyalty members with early access to new product stories and to drive energy and engagement with new and existing consumers. We believe the pivot in our classic marketing underway will play a key role here as well. Vans has a long history of success with a rich heritage and strong brand equity. I'm confident there is a long runway ahead for future growth. Timberland delivered 11% growth in Q3, led by a very strong sellout season with key accounts in the U.S. and with our own channel. Key wholesale partners continue to rebuild inventory levels as retailers and consumers remain hungry for the brand's iconic product. This demand-full dynamic continues to support strong margin performance across the business. We continue to see the strength from the GreenStrike innovation platform, which drove strong sell-through across all regions globally. We've also seen encouraging performance in women's across core hiking and heritage foods. Apparel growth has accelerated globally, led by newness, highlighted by approximately 90% growth in the Americas. In addition to these bright spots, successful collaborations continue to deliver brand heat, highlighted by Timberland Supreme, who sold out globally in 48 hours across all SKUs. The recent collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger also drove strong engagement through unique storytelling around sustainability and progressive authentic style. We are pleased with the building momentum at Timberland, and looking ahead, we remain confident in the brand's long-term potential for profitable growth. Moving to Dickies, which grew 14% versus fiscal 20 levels, driven by continued strength in the Americas. Elevated sell-through and strong demand signals indicated the brand's evolving integrated marketplace segmentation is delivering as planned, and the brand continues to see growth from both the workwear and work-inspired segments. We're also pleased to see the brand profitability continuing to improve ahead of plan. And finally, the Supreme brand continues to see strong demand and sell-through both online and in its stores. The brand delivered nearly $200 million in revenue in Q3, despite closing doors globally at various stages due to pandemic surges. We had a strong close to the fall season as the Supreme team, partnering with VF Supply Chain, were able to align inventory flow with their revised drop schedule. The Supreme team remains highly focused on their store-led geographic expansion strategy as a key element in showcasing the brand and its unique collection. The brand opened two stores in Europe this year, in Milan and Berlin, executing against its international expansion strategy. The team continues to stay the course and create brand awareness in an intentional and authentic way. We're excited about Supreme's longer-term potential as a key brand within the VF portfolio. I'm proud of how our organization continues to manage through this uncertain environment and pleased with the continued resiliency of our people and our operating model. Our fiscal 22 outlook today is stronger, both top and bottom line, relative to our initial commitment at the beginning of the year, despite facing new challenges in the macro environment. Following significant reshaping over the past five years, our business is sharper than ever, We delivered a strong quarter and maintained our earnings outlook for the year as a result of broad-based momentum achieved across our diversified family of brands. We're well-positioned to continue driving profitable growth and elevated returns to our shareholders. And now I'll turn it over to Matt.