DENVER – VF Corp, which owns brands including The North Face, Timberland and Vans, has announced it is shifting its Product Supply Hub, the base of its global supply chain in Asia, from Hong Kong to Singapore. The company is also moving its brand operations from Hong Kong to Shanghai where the company currently employs approximately 900 office and retail staff.
An additional shared services centre for the region will be established in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The shifts will take place over the next 12 to 18 months, with the first moves expected in April 2021.
“Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to invest in our business across the Asia Pacific region, while also supporting VF’s overall transformation plan to become a more consumer-minded, retail-centric and hyper-digital enterprise,” said Steve Rendle, VF’s chairman and CEO. “We established our presence in Asia 25 years ago and have continually shaped our business around the region’s many evolving opportunities. Now, we’re further transforming our Asia operations so we can better serve this fast-moving, technology-driven market with increased speed and capabilities.”
By placing its brands’ center of operations in Shanghai, VF “aims to forge stronger and more relevant relationships with Chinese consumers.”
The business is hopeful that relocating its Product Supply Hub to Singapore will enable greater integration across VF’s global supply chain network, which also includes key hubs in Europe and the Americas. Additionally, VF will redeploy some of its product supply talent and resources throughout its primary sourcing countries in the region to work more closely with key suppliers and drive greater efficiency.
Rendle added: “We’ve made great strides in recent years to advance our brand strategy in Asia with new capabilities in digital and analytics, stronger relationships with the region’s digital titans, and the appointment of new VF leaders in both Tokyo and Shanghai. As we build on this strong foundation, we also see significant opportunities in creating a hyper-digital supply chain with a key hub in Singapore that will enable us to unlock greater speed and agility in how we make, source and move our products around the world.”
VF’s additional shared services centre in Kuala Lumpur is intended to help the company further expand the footprint of the back-end business functions that support its brands and supply chain operations across the Asia Pacific region. The new centre will house various functions including digital technology, finance, human resources, and logistics. Hong Kong will remain a key retail market for VF and its brands.