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RALEIGH, N.C. -- VF Jeanswear, parent company of brands including Wrangler, Rustler and The North Face, to name a few, recently restructured its portfolio. It sold its Healthtex children's wear label to Lollyriotwears Ltd. in May 2004. Earlier in the same month, the company announced its acquisition of the Vans brand. Both moves reflect a larger business plan.

"Vans is part of our strategy to add more lifestyle brands. If you take a look at where the business is going, it is clear that they are what retailers are looking for," said Mackey J. McDonald, chairman and ceo of VF, in an interview with DSN Retailing Today/ Apparel Merchandising.

The Vans brand fits VF's desire, according to McDonald, to add a youth-oriented, action sports brand to its roster. It will be part of VF's Outdoor coalition, under the supervision of chairman Eric Wiseman. The authenticity of Mans, often considered the original skate brand, was especially appealing.

Vans also adds a major footwear label, and all of the production experience that comes with it, "which may be leveraged into our other brands as we build them into lifestyles, including Wrangler," noted McDonald.

In turn Vans gains "VF's apparel expertise and global presence to deriver the next wave of growth," said Wiseman. The limited amount of Vans apparel currently in distribution, including Ts and headwear at retailers including PacSun, is expected to expand into a broader lifestyle assortment under VF's management.

Approximately one-third of Vans' business comes from wholesale, one-third comes from the 155 Vans retailer stores and one-third from international sales. The latter are important as VF "positions itself as a global corporation," added McDonald. While he stressed that VF is "not a retailer and does not intend to be a retailer. Some of our lifestyle specialty stores, for The North Face and for Vans, help build our brands." In total, VF anticipates that Vans, bought for $396 million, could bring in $500 million in annual revenues within the next three to five years.

While Vans indicates the direction that VF is going, Healthtex turned out to be a less-than-ideal fit. The Healthtex label had been on the auction block for approximately one year before its sale to Lollyriotwears Ltd.

While VF's specialty is denim, this children's wear line heavily consists of non-denim knits and wovens, which fit perfectly into Lollyriotwears' business. The latter's core competencies in children's wear under its Cotler, Lollyriotwears and French Toast Official Schoolwear brand complement the Healthtex brand, long known for its mid-tier children's wear.

"We have a really good relationship with VE since we produce some of their Lee childrens' apparel, and it made sense for us to acquire the brand, especially because of our strong relationship with the retailers that sell Healthtex," said Stacy Bobroff, director of marketing for Lollyriotwears Ltd. Sears and Kohl's will remain two of its biggest customers.

Bobroff also pointed out that Lollyriotwears has sourcing advantages that "can really help improve the price/value relationship for Healthtex."

Additionally, Lollyriotwears purchased rights to Healthtex's proprietary stain-resistance technology, known as Kidproof, which can be used on knits without adversely affecting the hand of the fabric. This may be applied to other garments under other Lollyriotwears Ltd. brands as well. "We're toying with different ideas; stain resistance definitely remains big news," added Bobroff.

Both VF's acquisition of Vans and Lollyriotwears' acquisition of Healthtex reflect larger industry trends. Companies are carefully identifying what they excel at, and are narrowing their focus to those areas.