WEBVTT

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But I am curious, Jeanine, when you look

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at the new CEO coming in, I know he

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doesn't start for a while here. Are you a

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little bit more optimistic that maybe the direction the management

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of this company will change for the better? I

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think it's still too early to say exactly what his

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direction will be. Our view is that he will

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probably take the existing strategy. They have, they

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do have a turnaround plan in place and put his

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own tweak on it, put his own spin on

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it ultimately amplify that. But I think more importantly

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, what it means to have a new CEO in

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place is for one for the stock, it removes

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an overhang that we've had basically since last December,

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when we had the managed turnover of the question of

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who will lead this company into the next leg of

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growth. And then I think secondly, internally for

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the company from an organizational perspective, they've essentially been

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in a holding pattern, having some form of turnaround

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plan in place, but not really having a leader

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to realize that plan. So I think for the

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employees internally there, that's key in building the confidence

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that the plan is going to accelerate that there is

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a plan in place, there will be someone to

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lead them. We talk to the of this plan

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. Well, talk to us about what you think

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the plan should be. I mean, we talk

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about these iconic brands but we know that fashion and

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apparel industry can be very fickle. People are into

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one brand today and into another tomorrow. How does

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a company like this that has such a long and

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long and varied legacy? How does it, I

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guess, stay fresh in the minds of consumers?

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Yeah, I think that's the challenge that they have

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right now, particularly with the Vans brand, which

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is the biggest piece of their business. The brand

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, the Vans brand became extremely hot for a period

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of about two years pre COVID and then they kind

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of failed to innovate from there. And I think

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now they need to find a way to become relevant

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to the consumer again because that brand has fallen out

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of favor. Um and they need to find a

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way to once again kind of drive innovation and become

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relevant what we think needs to happen and it's just

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more product newness. They became overly reliant on a

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couple of key styles that worked really well until they

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didn't work anymore. And now they need to find

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what's new and then communicate to the consumer that that's

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out there and this won't be an overnight process,

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but we do think it's doable and still think that

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there's a lot of equity in the band's brand.

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Don't think it's a broker and brand. Ultimately think

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it's one that just kind of lost a bit of

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freshness and newness with the consumer that they need to

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bring back and talk to us a little bit about

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Bracken Darell himself because he has an interesting background.

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Of course, he's coming from Logitech. He's held

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leadership roles at Procter and Gamble Whirlpool and G not

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, you know, necessarily from the same industry that

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VF Corp is in. And this is part of

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a little bit of a trend that we're seeing in

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this industry. What's some of the thinking behind that

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? And do you think that that's a smart move

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to bring in someone from, who's not necessarily from

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the industry? For sure, we're definitely seeing that

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trend more of industry outsiders coming in. And I

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think it could be helpful just in terms of bringing

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a new perspective, bringing in new blood, who

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maybe isn't as close to the industry, but has

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an outsider perspective in terms of what he does bring

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in terms of a relevant skill set. We do

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think he has a lot of expertise in consumer facing

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industries. He spent about 10 years at tech,

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which is a consumer facing technology brand and ultimately did

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a lot there similar to what needs to be done

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in advance in terms of product diversification and bringing the

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more relevant product assortment to the market. So he

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has experience there, I think also experience with brand

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turnarounds. Um that was a turnaround. He also

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turned around the old spice brand. And then lastly

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, I would say just being a public company CEO

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for a period of 10 years is really important.

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I think VF right now needs someone who can reinstill

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confidence with the market and with investors. And that's

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why you've seen their pe multiple go from being over

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20 times historically to now less than 10 times because

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the markets really lost confidence. And I think they

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need someone who can bring that confidence back. And

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Jeanine just quickly, you kept your neutral rating on

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the stock after the announcement. What would you need

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to see to bump you up to a buy?

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I think we need to start to see some green

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shoots within the band's brand, which we really think

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is key to the turn. And I think the

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negative here is that even with a new leader in

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place, the product development cycles for footwear are very

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long. They're about 18 months. We also know

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that we're in a challenging macro environment and even more

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so than that, we're in a challenging wholesale sell

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environment, whereas the retailers are buying their orders very

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, very conservatively just knowing that the consumer is pressured

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. So what we really need to see is some

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signs of a turn knowing that this will probably be

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somewhat of a lengthy process. I don't think it

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happens overnight. I think this is more of a

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1 to 2 year turn at this point, even

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with new leaders in place.