STABIO, Switzerland — Innovation in design, an integrated approach and a g-local mentality are the pillars VF Corp.’s Martino Scabbia Guerrini, executive vice chairman and president of EMEA, APAC and emerging brands, has embraced over the past few years.

They’ve ensured VF’s continued growth within the EMEA region, which late last month reported its eighth consecutive quarter of sales increases. Revenues were up 8 percent at constant exchange rates to $901.3 million within the fourth quarter ended April 1.

This compares with an overall decline in VF’s revenues of three percent at constant exchange for the quarter to $2.7 billion, dented by the uneven Supreme business, continued sales declines at Vans and an overall weak performance within the Americas.

Although Scabbia Guerrini believes the U.S. will proceed to drive global consumption despite inflation and volatility, the EMEA region plays a very important role for VF, parent to Timberland, The North Face and Supreme, amongst other brands.

His goal is to take the identical business and design energy eastward in his recently added role of president of the APAC region.

“Europe has been an incremental growth driver for VF but clearly it wasn’t enough….America still accounts for half of sales,” Scabbia Guerrini told WWD, speaking from his office in Stabio, Switzerland, where the corporate’s EMEA headquarters are based.

“Taking a look at the past six years roughly, Europe has grown almost at all times steadily…in the center double-digit range. We’ve undergone 2016 and the height of terrorism in Europe, the yellow vest protests in Paris, Brexit after which COVID-19 and now clearly the peculiar economic landscape because of the the Ukraine crisis. There was never a dull and stable period,” he said.

In fiscal 2023, VF’s revenues jumped 12 percent at constant exchange rates within the EMEA region, where the U.K. is the corporate’s primary market, followed by Germany and Italy. North European countries have emerged stronger after the pandemic, flanking France and Spain.

“I believe today what makes a difference is driving performance through the noise, through instability…you would like a solid, consistent offering, and interesting, too,” the chief said. “Europe has had the chance…to reap the fruits of the modern and integrated considering that we propelled, along with brand execution and a powerful organization. I believe one must innovate inside the brands by at all times elevating their level, the extent of execution.”

Although VF operates and designs its products with a world customer in mind, there’s a g-local component that has been key in marketing the identical values, concepts and design features in several markets.

A focused and premium-leaning distribution has been a key asset and one among Scabbia Guerrini’s top priorities. “It needs to be impeccable and increasingly modern,” he said.

“That’s what Europe did higher than other regions inside VF and this brought us results since the organization is robust. I believe we have now talents, strong diversity, in addition to business, content and design leaders boasting not only a strategic vision but in addition a world understanding of consumers, not less than on a European level,” he offered.

Transparency, alignment and an integrated approach are core values at VF under Scabbia Guerrini.

“Fairly often I need data I have a look at to be accessible to anyone, that market intelligence insights are shared,” he said. “That’s because transparency brings alignment and the latter contributes to clarity on everyone’s tasks. We’re very integrated and tackle business, brand, operational and technology transformation priorities, all of sudden,” he added.

In fiscal 2023, sales within the APAC region inched up 1 percent at constant exchange and grew 10 percent within the fourth quarter led by a powerful performance in Greater China.

“A qualitative approach already bore its fruits in Asia and we have now to construct on that. It’s not been capitalized on yet [because of stop-and-go retail closures],” he said. Reporting to Scabbia Guerrini, Winnie Ma, president of the APAC region, oversees the local hub in Shanghai, which replaced the previous regional unit in Hong Kong.

Scabbia Guerrini sees potential synergies between the 2 regions stemming from similarities, including the need for aspirational products and retail spaces.

“It’s evident that Europe and Asia are a reference point for a certain portion of consumers which are forward-looking, seek cultural value along with aesthetics, engage by fashion and design interactions, by performance,” he said.

“They’ve the same and razor-sharp approach to brands’ segmentation and robust positioning. As much as in Europe, they need a powerful design component, and tech innovation and collaborations,” he said mentioning, for instance, the integrated e-commerce strategy that in each regions entails the d-to-c channel in addition to marketplaces similar to Zalando and Tmall, respectively.

Essentially the most recent example of an integrated and g-local approach was the introduction of the Tokyo Design Collective, or TDC, in town’s Harajuku district, a design hub geared at innovation and native fashion.

In comparison with VF’s traditional organization structure whereby head design offices, each positioned in the important thing geography for the brand, are flanked by regional extensions, Tokyo has only a g-local purpose and is poised to work on individual projects across the corporate’s brands, with a “local inspiration but global vision,” Scabbia Guerrini said.

“It’s a strategic alternative,” he said. “In Japan there’s very specific design, craftsmanship and a focus to elevating the heritage of iconic products, and we saw it has a powerful impact by way of influence and trend-building [capability] not only on China, but Europe, too.”

“Having different design hubs spread the world over helps us act faster. The variety of drops and stores has increased in comparison with 10 years ago and [everything] is linked to fashion, trends, culture, arts, collaborations,” he said.

The extra reason for a Tokyo-based design hub is to be present in VF’s brand portfolio, which leans toward streetwear that has a powerful resonance in Japan, because the hotbed for creation and influence within the category across the APAC region.

“As China continues to develop its aesthetics and taste, which may easily resonate globally…Japan is gaining back [relevance] in relation to streetwear,” he explained.

The primary drops created by the TDC are to bow next month, standing “on the intersection of streetwear, fashion and communities,” the chief said.

“These are crucial interactions because at the top of the day consumers could be considering sustainability and discounts — to call things on the other end of the spectrum — but ultimately, they’re considering beautiful products, aesthetically nice. They need trends, innovation, content and experiences,” he said.

Asia can be a pivotal a part of Supreme’s strategy, in keeping with Scabbia Guerrini, who boasted a Supreme-logoed skateboard amongst his corner office’s decor.

He characterised Supreme, acquired in 2020 for $2.1 billion, as an excellent summary of the 4 pillars VF is considering: powerful brands, elevated designs, a disruptive retail strategy and digital.

“That’s how they’re, we acquired them as a brand with a novel operational model and appeal,” he said. “We are able to learn rather a lot from it, and it’s not only led by scarcity — that might be banal to say. It’s fairly in the beginning built upon the careful construction of communities of core consumers, which are then amplified with a store opening and digital developments,” he said.

“This mechanism was unimaginable during COVID-19 due to travel bans and store closures, but now it’s back. We now have a goal of international expansion,” he said, detailing the reopening of stores in Milan and Berlin, in addition to recent units in London and Beijing, each inside Dover Street Market.

The latter city marks the trojan horse for Supreme in Asia, where the brand didn’t have any physical footprint outside Japan. Revamping existing units can be within the pipeline to reinforce the client experience. Overall, the chief noted that the present footprint allows Supreme to succeed in only 20 percent of goal global consumers.

“Moving from that, with our retail strategy we have now the potential to double that accessibility rate. Nevertheless, this ought to be done with discipline because Supreme is an excellent model but you might want to keep innovating the products, aesthetics and communication. You’d fairly avoid oversaturation, the scarcity model…is the tool to stay exclusive,” he said, noting how Europe and Asia are the go-to markets for added units to bow within the mid-term.  

“Today we have now a stable portfolio of brands…it’s 12 brands, we’re very focused now, and [the portfolio] is geared at impacting what we expect might be relevant for consumers within the upcoming years, the intersection of cultures, streetwear and outdoor, communities…investment on design, possibly responsible design with a powerful sustainability component…that’s very clear for VF today,” he said.