Last Updated on 06/29/2021 by GS Staff
Can you buy North Face stock?
The North Face is owned by its parent company, VF Corporation. While North Face is not publicly traded, its parent company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock symbol VFC. However, an investment in VF Corporation is an investment in much more than just The North Face.
Brands of VF Corporation
These are the brands that VF Corporation owns:
| Brands | Description |
|---|---|
| Altra | Running shoe brand for men, women, and children |
| Dickies | The maker of apparel and workwear |
| Eagle Creek | Backpacks, luggage, and travel accessories |
| Eastpak | A manufacturer of backpacks, bags, luggage, and travel accessories |
| Icebreaker | An apparel brand that is “100% made from nature” |
| JanSport | JanSport makes a variety of backpacks and bags |
| Kipling | Another brand of backpacks, handbags, luggage, and more |
| Napapijri | Higher-end outdoor clothing, shoes, boots, and accessories |
| Smartwool | The subsidiary of VF Corp uses Merino wool to make socks and apparel |
| Supreme | A brand of clothing and footwear |
| The North Face | The iconic brand of outdoor clothing, sportswear, footwear, and equipment |
| Timberland | Outdoor footwear and apparel company |
| Vans | The popular shoe and clothing company of younger kids and adults with roots in skateboarding/action sports |
While The North Face is one of many subsidiaries of VF Corporation, it is one of the three core brands of the company. The other two core brands are Vans and Timberland. The North Face is the largest brand in the company’s outdoor segment which also includes Timberland, Smartwool, Icebreaker, and Altra.
The table below reflects the revenues of the top brands of VF Corporation for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. Keep in mind that total revenues were $9,238,830,000 for this period.
Revenue of Top VF Corporation Brands: Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2021
| Vans | The North Face | Timberland | |
| United States | $1,9450,000,000 | $1,211,800,000 | $615,800,000 |
| Europe | 702,000,000 | 807,300,000 | 533,200,000 |
| Asia-Pacific | 627,000,000 | 329,400,000 | 280,500,000 |
| Americas (non-U.S.) | 191,700,000 | 108,900,000 | 83,500,000 |
| Total | $3,465,700,000 | $2,457,400,000 | $1,513,000,000 |
These three brands represent approximately $7.4 billion of the $9.2 billion of total revenues for the fiscal year 2021. While there are 10 other brands within the portfolio of VF Corporation businesses, the three core brands are the backbone of the company and are pivotal to driving growth.
We provided the above table to show that while The North Face is an extremely important brand of VF Corporation, it only represents about 26 percent of revenues. If you plan to research VF Corporation for potential investment, clearly the other brands need to be greatly considered in your analysis. This includes the smaller brands that may potentially have a positive or negative impact on the company going forward.
Will The North Face Ever Be Public?
It is doubtful that we will see a North Face stock in the foreseeable future through a spinoff or similar transaction. The brand is an important piece of VF’s portfolio of brands and provides a healthy portion of the revenues. Additionally, some of the company’s recent moves indicate that the focus of the company is on The North Face and related brands.
VF Corporation spun off its jeans business in 2019 into a new publicly-traded company called Kontoor Brands (NYSE:KTB). Kontoor took on the jean brands of the company such as Wrangler and Lee. Furthermore, VF has recently agreed to sell its occupational unit (workwear brands). These brands include Red Kap, VF Solutions, Bulwark, Workrite, Walls, Terra, Kodiak, Work Authority, and Horace Small.
What does this all mean? The company has opted to slim down to laser focus on its outdoor and active segments. We suspect they will likely maintain the business with these two segments without any further spinoffs or divestitures in the near future. In other words, you shouldn’t anticipate a publicly-traded North Face.
Image Credit – Andy Thrasher/flickr/public domain