Kontoor Brands, Inc. (KTB) may have tipped its hand on Wednesday, August 12 when the company promoted Joe Alkire to president of KTB. Never mind that Alkire has already been carrying the responsibilities of the finance department as CFO, but he has also taken on a role as head of global operation in July 2025, and in April of 2026, added global responsibilities for the Helly Hansen brand as well. That’s a full plate but it may signal that Helly Hansen will take an even bigger role in the growth of KTB going forward. Never mind that the company also announced on a conference call with analysts on Wednesday that its Investor Day will be held in early September at Helly Hansen’s headquarters in Oslo, Norway.
In an early morning media release, the company said that with his expanded role, Alkire will “maintain global responsibilities for the Helly Hansen brand and will expand his oversight to also include the Wrangler brand. In addition, he will continue in his role as CFO and maintain oversight over the company’s global operations.”
So, it should come as no shock or surprise that Alkire started his prepared remarks on the conference call telling participants clearly and succinctly that “Helly is our growth engine.”
KTB Chairman and CEO Scott Baxter appeared to second that motion when he said, “When we announced the [Helly Hansen] transaction, the goal was clear: drive greater value for our shareholders and structurally increase our TSR [(Total Shareholder Return)] potential.”
One name that was not immediately mentioned in the release regarding Alkire’s promotion was Børre Hegbom, who has been serving as SVP and global head of Helly Hansen, Hegbom, a 22-year veteran of the brand, handles day-to-day global execution across both the Sport and Workwear divisions. Baxter dropped his name as the conversation continued.
Baxter said that to ensure delivery on the company’s commitment, they established a value creation framework built on four pillars: accelerate revenue growth, achieve mid-teens operating margin, increase capital allocation optionality, and establish Kontoor as an employer of choice.
Asking rhetorically how they were performing, Baxter answered his question by saying that revenue is tracking ahead of the acquisition plan, with results exceeding KTB expectations in every quarter under its ownership. He said this has continued into the first half of 2026, with pro forma reported revenue growing at a low double-digit rate compared to KTB’s high single-digit outlook.
“We have had opportunities to grow faster, but we are committed to doing this the right way by creating a healthy foundation that supports years of sustainable growth,” Baxter said.
“We are making investments in talent and separating the Sport and Workwear commercial organization under Borre’s leadership,” Baxter continued. “These are distinct businesses with their own set of opportunities.”
In North America, KTB is creating two GMs to drive increased focus for the two business units at Helly, suggesting that they will replicate this globally over time.
“This is something the Helly Hansen team has discussed for years, and under Kontoor, we are making it happen,” Baxter commented.
Second, he talked expansion of operating margin. Through the first half of 2026, operating margin expanded approximately 600 basis points to 7 percent of revenue, driven by gross margin expansion and expense synergies. Baxter said this was KTB’s multi-brand platform in action.
“We are leveraging our supply chain and technology platforms to provide greater scale advantages for both organizations while driving greater back-end efficiency,” the CEO explained. “At the same time, better inventory management is increasing the mix of full price selling on our digital platform, resulting in higher AURs and reduced promotional activity.”
Baxter noted that this an area where KTB adds great expertise and has been a meaningful contributor to improved profitability.
“We remain committed to expanding operating margin while increasing investment capacity,” Baxter continued. “Over the last 12 months, we have done just that. As we move to the second half of the year, we will deploy these resources to drive accelerating growth.”
His third bullet, increasing capital allocation optionality, was highlighted by Helly Hansen generating $100 million in cash from operations last year, said to be driven by improved profitability and net working capital.
“We are ahead of our planned deleverage path, allowing for greater optionality even earlier than expected,” Baxter declared. “Year-to-date, we have returned more than $130 million to shareholders, including $75 million of share repurchases.”
Lastly, Baxter talked about establishing Kontoor as the employer of choice in the industry.
“Attracting and retaining top talent will ensure long-term success,” he stated. ‘We continue to be impressed by the Helly Hansen organization. There is depth at all levels. At the same time, we are investing in both existing and new parts of the organization to support accelerating growth. We are very encouraged by the talent pipeline and recently hired a GM of North America to lead our Sport business. We look forward to introducing him at our investor day next month in Norway.”
Baxter closed, saying, “By every measure, our first year together exceeded our expectations. We are on track to complete the majority of integration activities by year-end, apart from the systems migration, but we know the most exciting days are still ahead of us.”
Alkire went on to talk more about the Helly Hansen business.
“Helly is our growth engine, and we are accelerating growth in both the U.S. and the Alps region in Europe, while expanding into a four-season brand by winning in outdoor and disrupting the workwear market, two categories with significant white space relative to where we are today,” said KTB President Joe Alkire. “Within Sport, we intend to accelerate investment in geographic, category, and channel expansion. Under the highly capable Helly leadership team, we are bolstering the organization with more meaningful investments in the commercial and product teams.”
In addition to the new GM hire announced by Baxter, Alkire said that for the second half of 2026, KTB has also identified incremental opportunities to invest behind demand creation as they work to scale brand awareness, particularly in the U.S., where he said aided awareness is around 30 percent – and well below our peers.
“Winning in the outdoor category is about extending our authority beyond ski and sailing and competing year-round,” Alkire said. “Consumers already give Helly Hansen credit for high-performance gear and protection, and we believe we can extend this proposition into the technical outdoor category. We are building the product and innovation roadmap, thoughtfully expanding distribution, and investing in storytelling to claim that territory.”
In Workwear, Alkire sees “one of the most compelling growth opportunities in the entire Helly Hansen portfolio.”
He said they have built a large and profitable European business and there is significant runway to grow in the U.S.
“Structural tailwinds in Workwear are fueled by higher participation in skilled trades, the rising cost of higher education, and stricter workplace safety standards,” Alkire stated. “As Scott mentioned, we are choosing to separate Sport and Workwear into distinct organizations to drive more focus and better align resources against this global opportunity.”
From a profitability perspective, the KTB president and CFO said the company is committed to improving Helly’s operating margin into the mid-teens through a combination of gross margin expansion, operating expense leverage, and synergies.
“We are leveraging our multi-brand platform as well as Project Jeanius and seeing better than expected profitability as a result,” he noted.
“In the second quarter, Helly’s seasonally smallest quarter, we saw notable profit improvement and delivered positive operating profit well ahead of both our expectations and what the brand has been able to deliver historically,” Alkire explaiend. “As an enterprise to fund our commitment to drive brand building and growth-enabling investments across our portfolio, we have established an always-on cost excellence program to create the capacity for these investment dollars in our P&L. This program builds on the success of Project Genius and provides another layer of investment capacity and earnings power moving forward.”
“Simply stated, our strategy will deliver accelerated revenue growth, fund the investments required while expanding profitability and continuing to drive strong cash generations,” Alkire said.
Helly Hansen saw second quarter global revenue increase 6 percent year-over-year to $114 million in the 2026 second quarter, compared to the prior-year quarter on a pro forma basis. Through the first half, global revenue increased 12 percent on a reported pro forma basis, with underlying constant-currency growth in the mid-single digit range.
Sport was $70 million of the total for the second quarter, with growth said to be strongest in the U.S., the Nordics, and the Alps region in Europe. Growth was reportedly led by healthy order book conversion and solid at-once demand in e-commerce.
Workwear was $37 million of the Q2 total, with growth across the U.S. and the Alps region in Europe. “While small today, our Workwear e-commerce business was particularly robust in the second quarter,” Alkkire said.
Alkire reminded the call participants that Helly Hansen’s revenue results exclude the direct contribution of the China joint venture with partner, Youngor Group, as the results are not consolidated under the equity method of accounting. Second quarter results in China were said to be “strong,” with revenue increasing close to 70 percent, along with further improvement in profitability. Including the revenue of the China JV, Helly Hansen global revenue reportedly increased at a mid-teen rate on a pro forma basis.
To conclude his prepared remarks, Joe Alkire said, “We are driving strong benefits as a more synergistic brand owner and expect the business to be a significant contributor to revenue and earnings growth in the years ahead, but more on that at our Investor Day in early September.”
Image courtesy Helly Hansen/Kontoor Brands, Inc.
