Location Spotlight: VF’s World Headquarters in Greensboro, N.C.

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Location Spotlight: VF's World Headquarters in Greensboro, N.C.

May 31, 2016

Relocation to Greensboro, N.C., fueled growth and laid groundwork for VF's business platforms

The 1998 relocation of VF Corporation's headquarters from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, to Greensboro, North Carolina, was a pivotal move that paved the way for unprecedented growth, global expansion and industry leadership over the past decade and a half.

Move positioned VF for global expansion

Today, VF headquarters is located in a four-story building and employs more than 700 associates - an incredible increase from the 100 corporate associates who worked at VF's Wyomissing headquarters in 1998. The company's revenues have also doubled since the relocation.

'It was a pivotal move,' remembers Global HR Vice President Scott Shoener, who has been with VF for more than 30 years and oversaw the move from Pennsylvania to Greensboro. 'With the relocation, we knew we were positioning the company for global growth by strengthening our infrastructure and developing a platform approach to managing our global brands.'

Today, the company's powerful business platforms and centers of expertise, including human resources, Strategy & Innovation, finance, legal, communications, Direct-to-Consumer, technology and investor relations, along with the management team, are located at its world headquarters.

Growth has been a hallmark of VF's history

The company traces its origins to 1899 when John Barbey, a brewer and bank officer, and a group of seven other investors met and agreed to establish the Reading Glove and Mitten Manufacturing Co., which originally produced gloves and mittens. At the time of the move to Greensboro, VF produced one-third of all the jeans worn in the United States.

Relocating VF's corporate headquarters to North Carolina brought VF to a long-established center of textiles and manufacturing and closer to the home of Wrangler®, one of the company's largest brands. The Piedmont Triad was also the location of the company's growing information technology function.

'VF is undergoing enormous change, including the development of groundbreaking new systems and processes in support of our 'consumerization' efforts, and much of this work is taking place in Greensboro,' former President and CEO Mackey McDonald, who led the transition to Greensboro, said at the time. 'We must be closer to our key marketing units and support groups in order to speed decision making, share information better and, ultimately, benefit both customers and consumers.'

When VF initially relocated to Greensboro, the team leased the top floor of an existing building before moving into its current home on the northeast side of Greensboro. VF's current home is the former headquarters of Cone Mills, one of North Carolina's original textile companies.

'The move to Greensboro was critical to building VF into what it is today,' Shoener said. 'But it's the unique spirit of collaboration, creativity and genuine passion for our work that now defines us. Bringing everyone together made that possible. It's been almost 20 years since we moved to Greensboro, and we're just getting started.'