Wolverine Worldwide’s active group, which includes Merrell and Saucony, reported strong first-quarter results, however the company withdrew its 2025 guidance because of tariffs and ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty.
Sales for the active group grew more than 12% to $326.7 million in the quarter ended March 29, which drove a 4.4% increase for the company overall to $412.3 million.
Merrell and Saucony were the standouts among the Wolverine brands:
- Merrell revenue increased 13.2% to $150.6 million, with the largest contributions coming from the Asia Pacific and EMEA regions.
- Saucony revenue increased 29.6% to $129.8 million with strong double-digit growth in North America. The brand is expanding to 900 wholesale doors in lifestyle athletic specialty this spring, and expects to add more than 400 more doors in the back half of this year.
- Wolverine revenue decreased 9.2% to $37.4 million.
- Sweaty Betty revenue declined by more than 15% to $38 million.
International revenue increased 16.4% to $207.8 million.
“These results are another important proof point of our strategic direction and solid execution by our team,” CEO Chris Hufnagel said on the company’s Thursday morning earnings call.
Mitigating Tariffs Impact
Wolverine Worldwide CFO Taryn Miller said the company was already focused on improving profitability before the new tariffs were announced.
“Now we are intensifying those efforts and accelerating existing initiatives while prudently reducing spending in certain planned areas,” Miller said.
That includes:
- Working with customers and partners to implement strategic pricing increases on some products.
- Reducing product costs.
- Lowering SG&A spending.
- Continuing to reduce U.S. sourcing from China.
In 2019, 40% of company products sold in the U.S. were sourced from China. This year, that number should fall to the high single-digits, with the majority related to the company’s workwear segment.
Wolverine Q2 Outlook
While Wolverine Worldwide withdrew its full-year guidance because of the unpredictability of trade policy, it shared projections for the second quarter.
Revenue will range from $440 million to $450 million, a 3.7% to 6% increase year-over-year. The company also expects operating margin to be approximately 6.7%, down 10 basis points year-over-year, and adjusted operating margin to be 7.2%, up 90 basis points.
“For what we can control, I remain optimistic and bullish on our prospects,” Hufnagel said. “Our current order book and DTC trends support the top end of our previous full year revenue outlook, not to mention improving market share gains across most brands in our portfolio. In addition, I can tell you that overall demand trends for our brands appear to be holding at this point.”
Kate Robertson can be reached at kate@shop-eat-surf-outdoor.com.
