HanesBrands Inc. unveiled Full Potential, a three-year growth plan designed to drive approximately $1.2 billion in incremental revenue and expand operating margins to 14.3 percent by 2024.

HanesBrands said “Full Potential unlocks the enormous opportunities of HanesBrands building on its iconic brands, world-class supply chain, deep consumer loyalty, broad channel distribution, and global footprint. The plan drives the rapid growth of the Champion brand by investing in key geographic markets, expanding into women’s and kids’ apparel and casual footwear, and creating a premiere online experience at Champion.com. Full Potential also seeks to drive renewed innerwear growth by delivering innovation and breakthrough marketing that appeals to younger consumers.”

The company is investing in its portfolio of innerwear brands and expanding its e-commerce and digital capabilities to deliver a seamless consumer experience to drive growth with its retail partners and online channels.

“HanesBrands is an amazing company with a portfolio of strong, iconic brands and significant and sustainable competitive advantages,” said CEO Steve Bratspies. “Full Potential builds on these advantages to deliver approximately $1.2 billion in topline growth as well as improved profitability over the next three years. We are putting the consumer at the center of everything we do. We’ll do this by investing in innovation that delivers products that meet consumers’ needs and by creating a seamless experience that lets consumers shop for our products how, when and where they want to shop.”

The Full Potential plan consists of four growth pillars:

Grow global Champion
The plan calls for Champion to become a $3 billion global brand by 2024, representing a 14 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from projected 2021 sales of approximately $2 billion.

Consumers view Champion as a brand to that meets lifestyle and athletic apparel. The company is increasing its investment behind the platform, “Be Your Own Champion,” to tap into its growth opportunity. The brand’s growth strategy is organized around four actions:

  1. Forging deeper connections with consumers, focusing on three key consumer segments that represent approximately 70 percent of global activewear category spend.
  2. Creating a compelling product for each of these segments through globally coordinated design and innovation. In addition to expanding its strong share position in sweats, the company is focused on expanding Champion’s offerings in women’s and kids’ apparel, innerwear and casual athletic footwear.
  3. Growing in key geographies: North America, China, Japan, South Korea, and the Big 5 markets in Europe through a combination of digital, wholesale and distribution partners.
  4. Expanding online channels, with a focus on making Champion.com a premier brand and shopping experience globally.

Re-ignite Innerwear Growth
 The company expects global innerwear revenue growth of approximately $200 million through 2024, driven by sales in the United States and Australia. This growth represents a 2 percent compound annual growth rate on top of 2021 projected sales of nearly $3.7 billion.

In the U.S., the company is pivoting to accelerated and sustainable revenue and profit growth by revitalizing its core, with a focus on doubling its share with consumers under the age of 39. The company believes it can capture significant growth opportunities by leveraging its iconic brands such as Hanes, Maidenform and Bali and its leading share positions and route-to-market scale. HanesBrands is also applying a more consumer-centric, globally coordinated approach to product design and innovation, as well as increasing investments in brand marketing and e-commerce initiatives.

In Australia, Bonds has become the leading innerwear brand by delivering breakthrough product innovation and consumer marketing. The company plans to fuel continued growth through ongoing investment in the Bonds brand and its e-commerce infrastructure.

Drive Consumer-Centricity
 The company is putting the consumer at the center of everything it does. This consumer-centric mindset is expected to drive growth by delivering innovative products consumers need; improving awareness through increased investments in brand marketing; and making focused investments in digital capabilities, including digital marketing, e-commerce and advanced analytics. The company believes these investments will better empower consumers to shop where, when and how they like to shop.

Focus The Portfolio
The company will continue to simplify all aspects of its business – from global holdings to SKU counts – to enable investment in its key global brands, categories and growth markets.

To enable and unlock growth, the Full Potential plan includes defined and resourced initiatives. These initiatives fall into five categories:

  1. Win with brands and products: The company will enhance its global design and innovation capabilities to leverage its leading brand portfolio and to meet the needs of both current and new consumer segments.
  2. Supply chain segmentation: The company is building on the competitive advantages of its world-class supply chain by adding capabilities to address the unique needs of each of its brands, increase speed-to-market and become more efficient in serving direct-to-consumer channels.
  3. Simplicity: The company is simplifying its processes, organization and approaches to make decisions faster.
  4. Technology modernization: The company is investing in data analytics and technologies to reduce costs, gain business insights as well as improve decision making, forecasting and planning. The company is also streamlining its systems and building capabilities to deliver a seamless online consumer experience.
  5. Winning organization and culture: The company’s culture is a significant strength around the globe. The company is further investing in its people and next-generation talent to accelerate results and deliver sustainable, profitable growth.

Full Potential Three-Year Financial Outlook

  • HanesBrands expects the Full Potential plan to generate both higher and more consistent levels of revenue growth while increasing overall profitability;
  • Using the midpoint of the company’s 2021 guidance for continuing operations as the base year, the Full Potential plan calls for Revenue to increase from $6.25 billion to approximately $7.4 billion by 2024, representing an incremental $1.15 billion of revenue, or a 6 percent compound annual growth rate;
  • Approximately $1 billion of growth in its global activewear business, representing an 11 percent CAGR, to be driven predominantly by the Champion brand;
  • Approximately $200 million of growth in its global innerwear business, driven by renewed growth in the United States as a result of revitalizing its core. At the same time, the company will seek to double its share with younger consumers and to continue growing in Australia. This growth represents a 2 percent CAGR, which is well above projected global innerwear category growth;
  • Operating margins to expand 100 basis points to approximately 14.3 percent in 2024, compared to the midpoint of the company’s 2021 guidance of 13.3 percent;
  • Incremental investments of approximately $160 million over the three-year period ending 2024, including $90 million in brand marketing, $40 million of depreciation related to growth-driving capital investments, and $30 million for technology and people. By 2024, the company expects its annual brand marketing investments to essentially double as compared to 2020, to 4 percent of sales;
  • Targeted cost savings of approximately $160 million are expected to fully offset the increased investments. Cost savings initiatives designed to drive efficiencies and accelerate revenue growth fall into three broad categories: sustainability initiatives, technology initiatives and everyday cost management;
  • An incremental $300 million of capital investment above the historical run-rate, over three years ending 2024, with the vast majority going to supply chain and technology initiatives. On average, this represents total annual Capex spend of approximately $185 million per year, although the company anticipates higher than average spend levels in the first two years of the plan in order to realize projected growth and cost savings initiatives in 2024 and beyond;
  • An earnings per share CAGR of approximately 9 percent through 2024;
  • An average annual tax rate of approximately 18 percent; and
  • Average annual cash flow from operations of approximately $700 million.

Additional details of the Full Potential plan will be announced on Tuesday at the company’s Virtual Investor Day.

Photo courtesy Champion