VF Corporation to sell Majestic and Licensed Sports Group business to Fanatics

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Apr 4, 2017

VF Corporation, one week after detailing its 2021 growth plan, announced that it will sell its Licensed Sports Group (LSG) business to Fanatics. The company has been exploring strategic alternatives for the LSG business since March 2016.

 
The deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter of this year, includes VF’s Majestic brand that is being replaced by Fanatics as a partner of Major League Baseball. VF was in talks with MLB to continue producing uniforms for the organization, which would keep the jobs of up to 600 employees at VF’s Easton, PA facility.

Majestic, the apparel and fan gear supplier, has been in partnership with Major League Baseball since 2004. The brand and Nike will serve as uniform partners of MLB through 2019, and will be replaced by Jacksonville, FL-based Fanatics and Under Armour in 2020.

The Greensboro, NC-based company may not have seen a fit for its Licensed Sports Group business in its five-year growth plan. The LSG business represents half of VF's Imagewear coalition that generated $1.1 billion in 2015, and it contributed as much as $550 million.

President and CEO Steve Rendle said the company will put its focus on its international business, particularly in Asia, and its direct-to-consumer business, as well as the strongest brands in its portfolio Vans, The North Face and Timberland.
 
VF expects to deliver revenue growth of 4% to 6% and earnings per share growth of 10% and 12% by 2021.
 
The terms of the transaction between VF and Fanatics were not disclosed.