Wolverine to let go of Keds
Footwear group Wolverine World Wide has announced its intention to let its Keds casual footwear brand and its in-house supplier of leather go as part of a series of cost-saving measures.
In a statement on December 8, the Michigan-based company said it wanted to sell Keds and Wolverine Leathers or licence their operations to third parties.
The footwear group ran its own tannery in Rockford, Michigan, for 100 years, specialising from the 1950s onwards in making nubuck leathers from pigskin for brands in its portfolio, including Hush Puppies.
This tannery ceased production in 2009, but Wolverine Leathers has, until now, remained an active part of the group, contracting leather production and colouring to suppliers in five locations in the US, Vietnam, Thailand and China.
For its part, Keds is a brand whose canvas sneakers have been in production since 1916. Wolverine acquired the Massachusetts-based brand in 2012 when it completed the purchase of acquisition of Collective Brands’ Performance and Lifestyle Group (PLG).
In the December statement, Wolverine described these parts of the business as “low-profit contributors” and that it wanted to create more value for shareholders. Chief executive, Brendan Hoffman, said: “In this rapidly evolving retail environment, agility is more important than ever. As such, I firmly believe that portfolio simplification and prioritisation are essential to achieving our goals.”
As part of the same restructuring package, Wolverine has also announced a series of lay-offs.
It said it hoped these measures would generate savings of $65 million in 2023.
