Wolverine Worldwide Announces New Brand Group Structure and Leadership Roles to Support Future Growth

Wolverine World Wide, Inc. (NYSE: WWW) announced today a series of actions that will set the foundation for robust and sustainable future growth and provide more insight into the sources of value creation across the brand portfolio.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221109005320/en/

(Graphic: Business Wire)

These moves include:

• Reorganizing the brand group structure into the Active, Work, and Lifestyle Groups, to better leverage common product and consumer categories, align with the Company's view of its global portfolio, and provide increased transparency to investors;
• Appointing new leaders of these brand groups, to better position each brand for success; and
• Establishing a Profit Improvement Office to accelerate cost savings and efficiencies that will accelerate operating margin expansion and provide capacity for future investments.

“The new group reporting structure announced today is a natural progression of our business as it combines brands that share similar traits under one segment, which we expect will pave the way for increased collaboration, sharing of best practices, and ultimately value creation for our shareholders,” said Brendan Hoffman, Wolverine Worldwide’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

“Our Company possesses exceptional talent, powerful brands, and a strong operating platform. I believe this new group structure will unlock our potential to not only grow faster but also become a more efficient and simplified organization that delivers industry-leading margins,” continued Hoffman. “With this in mind, we are also announcing today the establishment of a Profit Improvement Office to identify cost savings, increase efficiencies, and enable investments that will fuel our future growth. Our overarching goal is to deliver consistent and enhanced revenue and profit growth that will put the business on an accelerated path to return to and ultimately exceed 12% operating margin. I firmly believe the changes announced today are fundamental steps towards achieving our goals.”

New Brand Group Structure

As of the fourth quarter of Fiscal 2022, Wolverine Worldwide reorganized its portfolio of brands into three reportable segments:

• Active Group, consisting of Merrell footwear and apparel, Saucony footwear and apparel, Sweaty Betty activewear, and Chaco footwear;
• Work Group, consisting of Wolverine footwear and apparel, Cat footwear, Bates uniform footwear, Harley-Davidson footwear and HyTest safety footwear; and
• Lifestyle Group, consisting of Sperry footwear, Keds footwear, and Hush Puppies footwear and apparel.

Kids footwear results from Saucony, Sperry, Keds, Merrell, Hush Puppies, and Cat will be reported within the applicable brand.