Wolverine Worldwide has promoted Scott Schoessel to chief marketing officer of its Work Group division.
The executive joined the Rockford, Mich.-based footwear company in 2020 as director of digital and retail marketing for Wolverine Worldwide. In 2022, Schoessel was promoted to his most recent role as vice president of global marketing for the Wolverine, Bates and Hytest brands. Prior to joining Wolverine, Schoessel held roles at Limited Brands, Bluedog Design, Gigunda Group, Gatorade and Kellogg’s.
Schoessel told FN in an interview that his promotion is in line with the footwear company’s efforts to leverage the scale of the Work Group – which includes the Wolverine, Cat, Harley-Davidson, Bates and Hytest brands – and bring the labels closer together across functions.
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“We’ve begun to pull the brands, at least, functionally closer together to operate with some synergy versus operating as completely distinct brands,” Schoessel said. “And where this has the most impact is with the Wolverine and Cat brands. Because for years, those two brands have been set up as competitors under the same roof, versus taking the opportunity to be able to create a portfolio strategy. So, now as one team we have the opportunity to share ideas, to grow in conjunction or in parallel to each other.”
Now that Schoessel and his marketing team are ready to move forward, the executive said that he is now working to define the roles of each brand within the division across pricing, functionality of categories and customer base.
“It’s really just outlining for retailers what role each of the businesses play and why it’s important to carry all of our work brands,” Schoessel said. “So that work is underway and continues to be in progress. And then it’s about assortment control as we move forward. So we will not be necessarily developing assortments individually in silos, we will instead develop assortments with clarity of each brand’s purpose.”
Looking ahead, Schoessel said he’s looking forward to the new products coming soon from the company. “As each brand settles into its role, I think you’re going to see really unique instances of synergies across new product launches, where we have opportunity to take technology and spread it across brands,” he said. “And I think that, to me, that’s what is most exciting.”
The formation of the Work Group came in late 2022 when Wolverine Worldwide reorganized its portfolio of brands into three reportable segments – Active, Work and Lifestyle. The move sparked what has since become a wave of new transformational moves as the company seeks to navigate lagging sales.
In February, the company said it finished 2023 with revenue and earnings that were in line with its guidance, as well as inventory and debt levels that were better than expected, after months of aggressive divestitures and cost cutting measures.
Overall net revenues for the fiscal year 2023 fell 16.5 percent to $2.24 billion versus $2.68 billion in 2022. As for the company’s fourth quarter performance, Wolverine Worldwide reported that its net revenues in the period fell 20.8 percent to $526.7 million versus $665.0 million the same time last year.
Looking ahead, the company is forecasting revenue for full year 2024 to be approximately $1.70 billion to $1.75 billion, representing a decline of approximately 12.2 percent to 14.7 percent compared to 2023.
The company is expected to report its first quarter earnings on May 8.
