VF Corp., the parent company of Vans, Dickies, Timberland, and The North Face, has reached a deal to buy the streetwear brand Supreme for $2.1 billion.
In a statement, VF said Supreme offered opportunity through international and direct-to-consumer expansion, the “core pillars” of its 2024 strategy.
Supreme, based in New York, has only 12 retail stores and does nearly 60% of its sales digitally.
“VF is the ideal steward to honor the authentic heritage of this cultural lifestyle brand while providing the opportunity to leverage our scale and expertise to enable sustainable long-term growth,” chief executive officer Steve Rendle said in a statement.
He added that the deal would further accelerate its hyper-digital business model transformation.
The company said Supreme would be modestly accretive to its revenue and adjusted earnings per share in 2021 and would contribute at least $500 million of revenue and $0.20 of adjusted earnings per share in the 2022 fiscal year.
“This partnership will maintain our unique culture and independence, while allowing us to grow on the same path we’ve been on since 1994,” Supreme’s founder James Jebbia said.
After the deal closes, Jebbia and the senior leadership team of the brand will remain with the company in New York.
Under the deal, Supreme’s current investors, The Carlyle Group and Goode Partners, are selling their stakes.
The company also recently announced it was making organizational changes to better align its brand and leadership management structure around its core and emerging brands portfolio. Under that change, the heads of Vans, The North Face, and Timberland all report directly to Steve Rendle.
In the spring, VF announced it had priced a $3 billion bond offering underwritten by Barclays, BofA Securities, J.P. Morgan, and Morgan Stanley.
Morgan Stanley provided a fairness opinion on the deal to buy Supreme, which is expected to be completed before the end of the year.
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