ITOCHU : and ITOCHU International Announce Investment in RC Holding LLC, a Major US Manufacturer and Distributor of Legwear Products
July 31, 2014 at 05:32 am EDT
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July 30, 2014
ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") and ITOCHU International Inc. (headquartered in New York, the United States; Yasuyuki Harada, CEO) announced today that they have acquired 25% of the shares in RC Holding LLC (headquartered in Delaware, the United States; Andrew L.Kilby,Jr. CEO), which owns Renfro Corporation (hereinafter, "Renfro"), a major manufacturer and distributor of legwear products in the United States. As a result of this acquisition, RC Holding LLC has become an equity-method company of ITOCHU.
Renfro was founded in 1921 as a sock factory in North Carolina, the United States. With its "commitment to providing the best quality, service and value to consumers and customers," the company has built relationships of trust with its business partners. Today, Renfro is one of the largest manufacturers and wholesalers of legwear products in the United States, and its products are retailed mainly by the world's largest retail chains, including Walmart, Kmart, Macy's and Costco. It now boasts the largest share of legwear products purchased by each retailer. Renfro has a substantial advantage in its extensive production base with state-of-the-art facilities that meet the strict management standards of major retail chains, including company-owned factories in the United States and Mexico, joint venture factories in India and China, and partner factories in other Asian countries, as well as in its superior product planning capability backed by proprietary consumer research and in the delivery network it has established in the United States.
ITOCHU has made the further promotion of downstream strategy and the acceleration of overseas expansion as priority measures and has been looking for partners who will help it increase its overseas earnings. Renfro has been aiming to expand its business in the global market by taking advantage of the experience and expertise it developed in the United States, which has resulted in the investment announced this time. ITOCHU will accelerate the global expansion of its legwear-related business by combining Renfro's planning and production platform and its sales network in the United States with ITOCUH's global sales capability, material procurement capability, and other strengths based on its value chain from upstream to downstream. At the same time, ITOCHU will develop the domestic legwear market in Japan by harnessing the network it developed through many years of operation while also cooperating with Renfro Japan.
Itochu Corporation is a diversified group organized around 8 areas of activity:
- distribution of food products (34.9% of net sales): frozen food, vegetable oil, sweeteners, sugars, etc.;
- distribution of hydrocarbons (23.3%): hydrocarbons (natural gas, oil products, bioethanol, etc.). The group also develops manufacturing of chemical products activity;
- manufacturing and sale of industrial and construction machines, vehicles and ships (9.7%);
- production of metals and coal (8.5%);
- sale of consumer products (8.4%). The group also develops forest products sale and real estate development activities;
- distribution of computing and telecommunication equipments (7%): data transmission, Internet access, media content broadcasting and mobile telephony equipments. The group also offers financial services;
- sale of textile products (3.6%);
- other (4.6%).
Net sales are distributed geographically as follows: Japan (79.5%), Singapore (5.4%), the United States (4.5%), Australia (3.1%), China (2.8%) and other (4.7%).
ITOCHU CORPORATION 
