V.F. Corp Picks Bracken Darrell to Turn the Company Around – C-Suite Transitions

Several years ago I came across someone who happened to be thrilled with her latest purchase of a t-shirt for $80. I am usually unable to maintain a poker face and my confusion was writ large on my face. I was looking at a plain white t-shirt with a large red logo that had the word Supreme on it. She went on to explain how Supreme “merch” was difficult to come by and that she had scored a deal by paying just $80 for this wonderful t-shirt. As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I was intrigued and looked into the company to discover the company was the brain child of Jame Jebbia, who opened his first store in Manhattan in 1994 and it was primarily focused on skating enthusiasts. It took him nearly 25 years to open his 12th store in San Francisco in 2019.

The business model was based on very limited “drops” of products that would sell out quickly. The merch would then be flipped on the secondary market for much higher prices. Mr. Jebbia’s genius didn’t just lie in this unique business model but also in how he flipped the company to the apparel group V.F. Corp (VFC) in December 2020 for $2.1 billion in an all cash deal.

The deal left V.F. Corp with a leveraged balance sheet and investors weren’t particularly thrilled with this move. The stock, which was trading north of $84 when the deal was consummated, currently trades for $18 and change. In this article we discuss V.F. Corp’s appointment of a new CEO to turn around a company know for its iconic brands like The North Face, Vans and Timberland.

Welcome to edition 47 of C-Suite Transitions, a weekly series on InsideArbitrage that tracks appointments and departures at publicly traded companies during the prior week. We highlight five appointments and departures each week by picking the largest companies from the full list of management changes.

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