Speaking at its annual meeting on Thursday, Blake Krueger,CEO of Wolverine World Wide Inc., told shareholders acquisitions would continue to help support top-line growth.
“We have to stay focus on adding some more brands – appropriate brands to our portfolio,” Krueger said at the meeting at its Rockford, MI headquarters, according to mlive.com.
In the past 15 years, Wolverine has grown its brands from three to 12. Acquisitions include Merrell, Sebago, Cushe and Chaco.
Mlive.com noted that reports began surfacing in January that Wolverine was a top contender to buy Collective Brands, which includes the Payless chain, along with footwear brands Sperry Top-Sider, Saucony, Stride Rite and Keds.
Asked by mlive.com about the reports after the meeting, Krueger declined comment but added he and CFO Don Grimes spend a lot of their time looking at other business and at other brands.
“We are pretty good at acquiring brands, bringing them in and nurturing them and plugging them into our international network of distributors and licensees (and) letting them flourish and gain some mass,” said Krueger.
He offered some insight into what the company looks for in an acquisition.
“The business under the brand can be great or not so good if the brand has the right potential and it stands for something and has a heritage and is authentic,” said Krueger. “We know we can do something if it fits within our space.”
He also reiterated that Wolverine has the capacity to handle bigger deals than in the past.
“The company is much larger today than it was 15 years ago,” said Krueger: “We have the ability to do a big deal and we have the ability to do the right small deal.”
