Ladies and gentlemen, good morning and welcome to the Kontoor Brands Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference call, please signal the operator by pressing star, then zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Michael Karapetian, VP, Corporate Development, Enterprise Strategy, and IR. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Operator, and welcome to Kontoor Brands conference call to discuss our announced agreement to acquire Helly Hansen. In addition to this morning's press release, we have posted a presentation to the investor relations section of our website. We encourage you to refer to the presentation for information related to the proposed transaction.
This morning, we also issued a press release containing our Preliminary Fiscal 2024 Fourth Quarter Earnings Results. We are scheduled to report our Fiscal 2024 Fourth Quarter and Year-End Results next Tuesday, February 25th, at which time we will host a conference call and provide 2025 guidance. Our comments this morning will be focused on the proposed acquisition of Helly Hansen. Amounts referred to on today's call will be in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted. Growth rates are based on calculations performed in local currency, Norwegian Kroner, unless otherwise noted.
Financial data for the Helly Hansen business is based on their historical accounting practices. Participants on today's call will make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ. These uncertainties are detailed in documents filed with the SEC. We urge you to read our risk factors, cautionary language, and other disclosures contained in those reports.
Joining me on today's call are Kontoor Brands' President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Scott Baxter, and Chief Financial Officer, Joe Alkire. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions. Scott.
Thanks, Mike, and thank you to everybody for joining us on short notice. Today marks one of the most important days in our company's history and one that I have been looking forward to. As you saw earlier today, we announced an agreement to acquire the iconic global Outdoor and Workwear brand, Helly Hansen. This acquisition will drive significant value for Kontoor, Helly Hansen, and our shareholders. As we will discuss today, this is truly a win-win. Our discussion this morning will focus on three topics. First, what makes Helly Hansen a perfect fit in our portfolio? Second, our approach to M&A and how it fits within our strategy to drive best-in-class shareholder returns. And third, why now is the right time for us to pursue this incredible opportunity? We have a strong commitment to create value for our shareholders.
At its core, our strategy is focused on driving profitable growth, accelerating cash flow, and increasing capital allocation optionality. Over the last several years, we have accomplished much. We delivered on our pivot to growth, expanded margins, generated industry-leading returns on invested capital, and returned significant cash to our shareholders. Last year, we built on this momentum by introducing Project Jeanius to drive incremental investment capacity while establishing a world-class multi-brand platform.
Taken together, our strategies have resulted in improving fundamentals, strong capital allocation optionality, and top quartile shareholder returns. In 2024, we delivered over 40% TSR. To drive these results, we have focused on four priorities: invest in organic opportunities of the business, support and grow our dividend and share buyback programs, and pursue accretive M&A. While M&A has been part of our capital allocation framework, we have consistently said the bar is very high.
Any potential acquisition needed to check a lot of boxes. First, it needed to be an authentic brand in strategically attractive categories: large, growing, addressable markets with structural tailwinds that afford a meaningful long-term growth opportunity. As I've stated many times, we would not surprise you.
There are several categories that fit with our business. At the top of the list is Outdoor and Workwear. We have landed both with Helly Hansen. And as you know, Joe and I have significant experience in both of these categories. Next, it needed to be accretive in year one and create a step function change in our top line and earnings growth algorithm while significantly improving our cash -generation profile. It also could not stretch our balance sheet.
We need to see a clear path to deleverage within 18 months-24 months. We also needed to be the rightful owners of the business. It needed to leverage our strengths while aligning well with our values. And most importantly, it needed to be a strong cultural fit. Not a lot of businesses check these boxes. While we have seen numerous opportunities over the last several years, we have remained patient.
This morning, I can say with confidence that Helly Hansen checks all of these boxes. To discuss the highlights of the business, Helly Hansen was founded in 1877 and has been at the forefront of innovation, quality, and performance for nearly 150 years. The business has nearly tripled over the last 10 years to approximately $650 million of revenue. And while profitability is improving, we see a path to double operating margins over time, fueled by the benefits of our operating platform. The category and geographic exposure is also complementary. The Sports segment, which includes Outdoor and Active, represents approximately 75% of the business.
The majority of the business is in Europe, Canada, and the US, with the latter representing a significant white space opportunity. The US remains very underpenetrated relative to its global peers. This is one of the key factors that attracted us to Helly Hansen. Our expertise is the US market, and this is the single largest growth opportunity for Helly Hansen. The remaining 25% of the business is in premium Workwear.
In many ways, the business has similarity to Wrangler and Lee. It is predominantly wholesale and replenishment in nature. The business has also been incredibly consistent, compounding at a double-digit growth rate over the last 15 years. That brings me to our next topic: how we expect Helly Hansen to amplify our ability to drive shareholder returns. First, Helly Hansen will accelerate our top line growth. The Outdoor and Workwear categories are large and growing faster than our core denim business.
Growth has been driven by strong innovation and exceptional product pipeline and incredible storytelling that creates deep connections with consumers across a wide range of usage occasions, from performance lifestyle to highly functional pinnacle products. Helly Hansen also has a loyal consumer base with a strong brand equity. While it remains underpenetrated in key markets around the world, by increasing brand awareness in markets like the U.S., we have the opportunity to accelerate their growth trajectory. And in China, increasing interest in sports and performance-based activities is helping drive one of the fastest-growing outdoor markets in the world. In 2024, Helly Hansen's China business grew triple digits. Second, it adds immediate category, channel, and consumer diversification. At the same time, the business is not too far afield. Outdoor and Workwear have been strategic growth categories for us and categories in which we already have a business with our current brands.
Combined, our Outdoor and Workwear business will increase to more than one-third of Kontoor revenue, and we can now offer consumers the entire spectrum of product from mass to sports specialty to the top of the mountain. Its large and growing direct-to-consumer business also adds strong capabilities to our existing D2C platform. And with approximately 75% of the business outside the U.S., Helly Hansen adds immediate scale to our international business. As a result, our growth algorithm improves meaningfully. Our operating profit and cash flow will accelerate. Our capital allocation optionality will climb to new levels, driving our TSR potential well above what we have been able to deliver in the past. This is also a great outcome for Helly Hansen. Canadian Tire has been a great steward of the business. We've had the opportunity to get to know the Helly Hansen team during this process.
It is an incredibly talented organization at all levels, but it has also been operating as a standalone business without global scale. While Helly Hansen has been executing at a high level on its own, we are highly confident it will see significant benefits under our ownership as a more synergistic global brand operator.
And finally, why now is the right time for us to acquire Helly Hansen? First and foremost, the team we have is an exceptionally talented group of leaders that have deep experience executing and integrating acquisitions, developing brands, and operating around the world. In addition, we have a global platform that Helly Hansen can plug into. This will provide a significant unlock for the Helly Hansen organization while driving greater scale benefits for Kontoor. The benefits will be far-reaching, including better back-end efficiency, greater speed, and improved decision-making. Our organic business is also performing.
As we announced this morning, our fourth quarter results were better than expected, capping off a strong year during which we drove market share gains, improved profitability, and generated significant cash. Simply said, we are operating from a position of strength. And finally, Project Jeanius is moving into the execution phase. Our resulting multi-brand platform will help drive efficiency gains and cost savings that will benefit both organizations. The shared benefits as a result this time are very compelling. Before I turn it over to Joe, I'd like to thank the teams at Kontoor, Helly Hansen, and Canadian Tire. I have been around more than a few transactions during my career. This stands above the rest and speaks to the quality and dedication of all involved.
In the coming months, we sincerely look forward to the opportunity to welcome the Helly Hansen team to Kontoor and build the next chapter of Kontoor's value creation journey together. Joe?
Thanks, Scott, and thank you all for joining us this morning. I am pleased to share our agreement to acquire the iconic global Outdoor and Workwear brand, Helly Hansen. This transaction will significantly increase Kontoor's scale, growth, earnings, and cash flow profile and create a powerful, more diversified portfolio with even stronger value creation potential moving forward.
In conjunction with our announcement, we provided our preliminary fourth quarter 2024 results. Our better-than-expected performance was driven by stronger revenue growth, earnings, and cash generation as we closed out the year. We will report our comprehensive results next week, in addition to providing more specific details regarding our 2025 outlook. The focus today will be on our acquisition of Helly Hansen. Capital allocation is a foundational component of our TSR model, and our priorities have remained consistent. Invest in the organic opportunities of our business, return cash to shareholders through our dividend and share repurchase programs, and explore accretive M&A as an added layer of creating shareholder value.
We've evaluated a number of opportunities over the past few years. Our approach has been to measure each opportunity against the high bar presented by the strength of our organic plan. As a result, we've been patient and disciplined. This approach is a hallmark of how we go about allocating and deploying shareholder capital. We are confident this approach and our announcement today will further cement the strong TSR potential of our business. Helly Hansen is one of the most premier, authentic assets in our industry, a brand that we have long admired, a business that we are uniquely suited to own, and one that will drive significant long-term value for our shareholders under Kontoor's ownership.
Before I go through the transaction details, I'd like to provide a brief overview of the business. Helly Hansen generated revenue of approximately $ 650 million in 2024. The business has tripled over the past 10 years and over the last five years has grown at a 10% compounded rate, outpacing its largest competitors and the growth of the broader market. Its channel mix is complementary to ours, with 75% wholesale and 25% direct-to-consumer. Geographically, approximately 75% of revenue is generated outside the U.S., driven by its strong presence in Europe and Canada. And the brand has an emerging presence in China through a JV partnership that grew at a triple-digit rate in 2024.
Helly Hansen is comprised of two high-performing segments: Sport, which includes Outdoor and Active Apparel and Footwear, and Workwear, which also includes premium apparel and footwear. The sport business accounts for approximately 75% of global revenue. The outdoor market is significantly larger than denim and is growing at a high single-digit rate, fueled by strong secular tailwinds.
The geographic opportunity is also compelling. While the U.S. is its fastest-growing market, it remains significantly underpenetrated relative to its peers and has been gaining significant market share. We see a clear path to continue to grow the business at a double-digit rate in our home market, driven by thoughtful wholesale expansion, selective retail door openings, and strong digital growth. Europe is the brand's most established market and accounts for approximately 60% of global revenue. Helly is known for high-performance, functional, and differentiated products, and the brand has a tremendous product development engine and innovation pipeline. As a result, brand equity and consumer loyalty are strong, which has contributed to consistent growth in the region. Over the last five years, the European business has grown at a high single-digit rate.
In Asia, Helly is just getting started. The brand entered the market in 2021 through a joint venture. China is among the fastest-growing outdoor markets in the world, and we see significant growth potential in the region moving forward. In 2024, the business grew at a triple-digit rate. For the sports segment, the combination of strong category growth, multiple geographic and channel expansion opportunities, combined with secular tailwinds, creates a rare and compelling value proposition. Over the last five years, the sports segment has grown at a 10% compounded rate. The Workwear business accounts for the remaining 25% of global revenue. The Helly Workwear business has grown at an impressive double-digit rate over the past 15 years. Growth has been fueled by a strong product pipeline that needs to be seen to be fully appreciated.
Helly's Workwear business is built around a segmented offering that includes innovations like HH CONNECT, BRZ climate- regulating technology, and the award-winning ICU high-visibility platform. In addition to apparel, Helly has a strong offering of purpose-built footwear. The Workwear business is primarily wholesale, with significant growth opportunities, including geographic expansion, new category growth, and continued digital momentum. We see a clear path to mid- to high single-digit Helly Workwear growth over the coming years as the brand is perfectly positioned to disrupt a highly fragmented global workwear market.
Moving to profitability, Helly Hansen generated EBITDA of approximately $ 75 million in 2024. While profitability has been improving, we see a clear opportunity to expand EBITDA margins into the mid- to upper teens over time, supported by the benefits of our global operating model. We expect Helly Hansen to be meaningfully accretive to 2025 earnings and cash flow, with accretion scaling materially in 2026 and 2027.
There are no synergies currently embedded in our transaction assumptions. That said, we have direct line of sight to meaningful synergies across a number of areas within the business. More specifically, Helly will benefit greatly from Kontoor's supply chain and technology platforms, its tax model, and other scale and operating capabilities. Moving on to the transaction details. As you saw in this morning's release, we have entered into a purchase agreement to acquire Helly Hansen for approximately $900 million, subject to customary regulatory approval and closing conditions. The terms of the transaction also include other long-term brand commitments from Canadian Tire. We intend to fund the acquisition with $700 million of new debt financing and approximately $200 million of excess cash. Our liquidity position is strong.
We ended the year with over $330 million of cash and close to $500 million available under our revolving credit facility. As of December 2024, our net leverage ratio, or net debt divided by trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA, was 1.0 times . Post-closing, our pro forma net leverage ratio will be less than three times. We anticipate returning to under two times net leverage within 12 months and back to pre-deal leverage within 18 months-24 months. Said another way, in less than two years, we will have significantly increased Kontoor's pro forma EBITDA, cash flow, and growth profile with a net leverage ratio that is similar to today.
So what does this mean for our capital allocation priorities? Over the near term, we will continue to invest in the organic opportunities of the business and grow our dividend. We believe our dividend payout ratio of approximately 40% is appropriate, and you can expect to see our dividend increase with earnings over time. We intend to temporarily pause our share repurchase activity to accelerate debt repayments and reduce leverage as quickly as possible. As I stated, we anticipate returning to about two times leverage within 12 months and to pre-deal leverage within 18 months- 24 months, driven by the strong cash flow from the combined business.
Long term, our capital allocation optionality is expected to increase significantly. We will continue to evaluate options to enhance shareholder value by effectively utilizing our strong balance sheet and cash generation. We currently have $215 million remaining under our share repurchase authorization.
Before opening it up for questions, I would like to echo Scott's comments. The acquisition of Helly Hansen will significantly improve our value creation potential. We expect a meaningful increase in our fundamental growth profile, greater category channel, and geographic diversification, and increased penetration in the attractive Outdoor and Workwear markets where we have deep expertise. The acquisition also complements our strengths, leveraging our global multi-brand operating platform and scale to drive greater efficiency for both organizations. And finally, it does not stretch our balance sheet with a clear path to quickly reduce financial leverage while enhancing our capital allocation optionality moving forward. We look forward to sharing additional updates in the coming months and welcoming the Helly Hansen team to the Kontoor family. This concludes our prepared remarks, and I'll now turn the call back to the Operator.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question- and- answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star and two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star key. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while we poll for questions.
The first question comes from the line of Ike Boruchow from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, everybody. A couple of questions for me. Just maybe, Joe, I hopped on late. I apologize. What's been the top-line growth trajectory of the brand, maybe just the past two or three years? What's your expectation on growth from here? Second question would be timeline to kind of get leverage back where you were pre-deal? And then any thoughts on cost of debt once you raise the money would also be helpful. Thanks.
Hey, good morning. Yeah, a couple of things. The brand, the growth rate has been very strong here in the low double-digit range over the last couple of years. It's been fairly broad. We talked about two segments, Sport and Workwear. It's been very balanced across geographic regions and in both wholesale, retail, and across the categories where they have a strong presence. The growth rate here has been really strong, really attractive as we look forward. This is a brand that I think you can expect to grow at least a high single-digit rate under our ownership as they plug into the platform. On the debt, we ended the year, Kontoor did, in a very strong financial position. We were about one times levered with $330 million of cash and an untapped revolver. We'll use $200 million of cash in the transaction.
So we're looking at about $700 million of new debt. We'll be just under three times levered at transaction close. That will come off pretty quickly. We said in our prepared remarks, we expect leverage to be inside of two times within 12 months. That does not include the synergies we have line of sight to. That does not include a pretty significant net working capital opportunity that we see. We expect to get there perhaps even faster than what I just talked about. On the cost of debt side, we'll see. We're going to move through that process over the next couple of months. As we sit today, I would think of somewhere in that 6%-7% range.
And then just a quick follow-up. Just can you elaborate a little bit more on those two details? Synergy, maybe just what is the most compelling part of it? Is it distribution or manufacturing to drive down AUC? And yeah, so just understanding the synergy opportunity would be helpful.
Yeah. Yeah, sure. So I guess some context. So we've got direct line of sight to some pretty significant synergies across the business. Helly has operated since 2018 as a standalone business inside of a Canadian retailer. So Kontoor is a more synergistic owner, I would say, as a global brand operator. But look, Canadian Tire has been a great steward of the brand. They've performed very well under their ownership over the last couple of years. But the brand's pain points in many ways are our largest strength. So they'll benefit greatly from plugging into our model.
I would think of areas like supply chain, certainly sourcing, logistics, distribution, certainly our technology platform, and then just a host of back-end scale and operating efficiencies and capabilities that we'll be able to unlock for the brand. We've got the infrastructure built. We've got the plumbing built. Now they can plug into our model in a very frictionless way versus investments they really were trying to make on their own as a standalone business.
And then the net working capital, the biggest opportunity is that. Where is that on payables or inventory? Just kind of curious where you were going there.
All of the above, I think, just plugging into our model, plugging into our system, harmonizing terms, I think applying our operational rigor, our financial rigor, it's pretty significant, but we'll talk more about that as we get the transaction closed.
Thanks so much.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Bob Drbul from Guggenheim Partners. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Congratulations on the deal.
Thanks, Bob.
I guess, Scott, can you remind us? I know you in your prior days at VF, but can you remind us how much time you spent at The North Face and just sort of, I think you laid out a pretty compelling case here, just the opportunities that you see where this brand is today versus sort of when you think about a lot of the changes that you instituted in your leadership at The North Face. Can you start there?
Sure. So Bob, I guess going all the way back to 2007, so I was around all of the outdoor businesses at VF for the entire time before we split in 2018. So that's 11 years. And then specifically for 2016, 2017, and 2018, the Outdoor businesses, including The North Face, all reported to me while I lived out in San Francisco and ran all their various Outdoor businesses that you're well aware of.
Great opportunity, got to know the business really well, got to know the consumer and the customers really well, and had an affinity for the business and just really thought that it would be a really good fit for us going forward because understanding that business a little bit, knowing that there was a big white space opportunity when this opportunity came out, and knowing that this was on our list.
We've been looking at a lot of things since 2018 when we split from VF, and Outdoor and Work were really at the top of the list, and then being able to get both with one company. And yet, Bob, still having a really big opportunity in North America, the largest outdoor market in the world, and being so underpenetrated. And knowing the business so well, it was really compelling for us to go ahead and do this. And the timing was really, really right. So yeah, that background was really helpful and will be really helpful going forward.
Great. And then just in terms of the sort of vision of doubling operating margins, how much of that is top-line dependent versus some of the synergy opportunity that you guys see?
It's both, right? We think there's opportunity to grow the business, and then, of course, we'll gain scale as we do that. I think that Joe kind of touched a little bit earlier on some of the opportunities that we have as we plug these businesses in together. We've got a really nice, really nice model that we've been working on, and Jeanius is going to dovetail. O ur Project Jeanius is going to dovetail this as we get both of those things done here at the same time. One of the things I want to make sure that everybody realizes is it's actually perfect timing.
Plugging this business in right now as we're finalizing and getting to those final stages with Jeanius is just excellent for us because we can do it all at the same time and kind of just kick it off and start running really hard next year, but yeah, I think we have a lot of confidence we can do that. Joe, what would you add?
Yeah, Bob, so you know this space well. I mean, this space is very attractive. Many of its peers are operating with operating margins that are double the Helly business. So structurally, it's a really attractive space. With the synergies that we talked about relative to where the brand is today, we're more than halfway home in terms of that goal. There will be more as we get smarter on the business, as we begin to work with the team more intimately. Like I said, just as they plug into our model, given the growth that we see, there's a lot of leverage pent up as we look forward.
Then just one sort of clarification. The China situation, the Helly Hansen in China, I guess it says it's a joint venture. I guess can you just expand on your thoughts around that partner and sort of how you envision that longer term versus how you guys operate today?
Yep. Sure, Bob, I'll take that. So Helly Hansen entered China through a JV partnership with the Youngor Group in 2021. It's a 50/50 JV with a 10-year initial term. The JV has been very successful. Youngor has been a good partner. The performance of the business has been very strong. So for us, as we close the transaction, the results of that JV will not be consolidated. Helly receives a royalty stream as the owner of the IP, as well as a 50% interest in the operating profits of the business received in the form of dividends. But look, the outdoor and active market in China is one of the largest and fastest- growing markets in the world. We look forward to continuing the strong partnership that's been established as we take ownership of the business.
Great. Thank you. Good luck.
Thanks, Bob.
Thank you.
Thanks, Bob.
The next question comes from the line of Brooke Roach from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you for taking our question. I was hoping you could speak to the competitive advantages you see of the Helly Hansen brand today versus the many competitors that are in that marketplace. You've talked a little bit about that opportunity that you see to grow Helly Hansen significantly in the home market. What changes are you planning to make to realize that opportunity? Thank you.
Sure. Brooke, I'll take that. Scott. A couple of things. One, there's a 150-year history of innovation from Helly Hansen, which we really like. There's a really good culture there right now, a really strong team that's going to come over with us, and that innovation has worked really well in the markets that they've had a very strong presence. We think that innovation can work really well in this home market here. I have relationships. We have very strong relationships with the wholesale customers throughout North America that we can capitalize on. We're experts in this market. We can go ahead and put a team together to complement the team that's already here and take full advantage of that going forward.
We think the time is right from the standpoint of adding another big brand into this market right now from an Outdoor standpoint because of those innovations, because of how good the product is, and because we think we're the rightful owner at this moment in time, and we can invest the energy and the financial position that we'll have because of our strong balance sheet to go ahead and move this forward.
Great. And then as you think about taking that bigger step into the Outdoor market relative to your legacy portfolio, are there any investments in systems, processes, or people that need to be made?
Well, actually, Brooke, if you think about what's kind of happened here, and I know you know the history, but just a quick reminder, we just finished up in the last couple of years our SAP transition. So the timing from the standpoint of adding them in, and we will be a significant upgrade for them to plug into our technology platform. So that, one, is an advantage for us and an advantage for them. So really, really happy about the timing on that.
And now with us kind of finishing up that big evolutionary step from a Project Jeanius standpoint of kind of what we're going to look like as a company going forward after our spinoff from a back-end standpoint, the timing of bringing them in at this point in time. And we're much more sophisticated in that kind of space already. And now what we're doing and adding them into that, and Joe talked a little bit about some of the advantages that we'll have, that is the other step.
So as I think about the why from a technology and back-end standpoint, it's just a significant leg up for them to plug into our model. And the timing is right because of all the work that we've done and all the financial commitment that we've made to upgrading our technology platforms and also our back-end. So the timing is perfect.
Great. And then final question for me. Just can you touch on the sourcing exposure of the Helly Hansen brand today? Sourcing is an advantage for you, and we've talked a lot about it so far, but what countries of origin is Helly Hansen currently sourcing its product, and do you see opportunity for further diversification?
Yeah. Hey, Brooke. It's Joe, I'll take that. So Helly Hansen is 100% sourced today. They do have a fairly diversified footprint. They've been further diversifying, as you would expect, over the last several years. Their largest trading partners are China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia. These are areas where we have a meaningful presence, a lot of experience in those markets. So Helly Hansen will benefit greatly from plugging into the Kontoor model. We talked about the synergies we see across sourcing and logistics in particular.
I'll address tariffs because that may be a question that's on your mind. The brand certainly will not be immune, but remember, the U.S. business is less than 25% of their total today. And certainly, plugging into a platform like ours will allow them to navigate these waters in a more efficient way than, frankly, they are today as a standalone business.
Great. Thanks so much. I'll pass it on.
Thanks, Brooke.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Jim Duffy from Stifel. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, Scott and Joe. Congratulations to you and the team on the deal. I want to talk about Helly, its representation in the U.S. Scott, how do you see the brand differentiation versus the competitive outdoor brand landscape? And can you speak about some of the tangible growth avenues and the timeframe? I'm curious about owned retail. I know there's a store in Boulder. There's a store on 16th Street here in Denver set to open any day now. How much is owned retail part of the strategy for growth? And yeah, that's a good starting point. Thanks.
Sure. So Jim, I think the brand is really in a good position relative to the innovation they bring to the market at the price points that we come in at. So I think there's a real opportunity there. I've kind of felt like for the last few years that there hasn't been enough innovation in the category since I know it fairly well and felt like someone could come in and be a little bit of a disruptor. And I think that's us. I think one of the things that we really liked is we like the team that we have there that can go ahead and bring that. From a retail footprint, there's only 50 stores around the world. We think there's opportunity to go ahead to build a much stronger D2C network for sure.
And we also think there's opportunity from a wholesale standpoint with some of the key retailers that are in the space, obviously, right now where we're much underpenetrated and think that it'd be nice to introduce some competition into that segment, into that marketplace. And I think that the customer will welcome that from Helly to come into this marketplace. So if you add all those things up, I think that it's really compelling from the standpoint of we just have a small business here that has the opportunity to grow at a pretty significant rate.
Now, if you flip over to the rest of the world and you see some of the innovation and some of the things that we're doing and see some of the D2C stores in Europe and Canada, you can really see how the brand has come to life in a really significant way.
And then there's also, Jim, I think the other piece, the Workwear piece. That is a hidden component here that 25% of the business is in Workwear, which is most predominantly in Europe and Canada, but there's an opportunity here in the United States too. And that kind of fit one of the other things that we look for from an acquisition standpoint. So I think elevating the whole portfolio specifically here in our home market, which we are experts, will be beneficial for our shareholders for a long time to come.
Yeah. Jim, maybe just as you think about how we're going to fuel that growth, just a few areas of investment. I mean, the geographic expansion, the D2C expansion, they've been a little bit constrained, right, under the current ownership. We see an opportunity to accelerate that. I think from just an overall demand creation standpoint, they've got fairly low awareness in a big market like the U.S., for example. They're underinvested relative to some of their peers. And I think we can certainly help with that. But I wouldn't think of those investments as being incremental given the synergy opportunities and some of the other efficiencies that we see.
Great to hear. And then maybe if you could just touch on the size of the Canadian business and the distribution agreement with Canadian Tire.
Yeah, I'll take that. So again, Jim, Canadian Tire has been a great steward of the brand. Helly has a very strong presence inside of two of Canadian Tire's retail banners. So SportChek and Mark's are very important customers for the Helly brand in Canada. And Helly Hansen is a really important brand to those businesses inside of those retail environments. So as part of the transaction, we've got multi-year commitments. Multi-year commitments were put in place to further solidify and deepen that partnership.
And then how big is the Canadian business now, Joe?
Just under $100 million today.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Paul Kearney from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. Two, can you talk about the potential for additional synergies within channels? I guess does the combination of businesses and broadening of the Outdoor portfolio allow for deeper penetration within different retailers? And what is the current overlap within wholesale? And then I have a follow-up. Thank you.
Yeah. So certainly, we see the opportunity for both of our brands that we currently own and this brand to work together from a channel standpoint, not just here domestically, but across the globe. We see a D2C opportunity. We see an e-commerce opportunity. And I think the best way that I would categorize it is if you think about our outdoor business that we have right now, we're kind of at the bottom of the mountain, right? We're really, really strong around hiking, camping, fishing, hunting. This allows us to elevate up, elevate up in price points, elevate up in innovation, elevate to the top of the mountain, elevate to really, really cold weather where you can build some really great product that Helly Hansen has been building for a long time.
It helps us to be able to take the consumer from one end of the outdoor experience all the way to the pinnacle of the outdoor experience. So really good for us. And I think to not overstate it, but we have really strong relationships with our customers and consumers across the United States, and they really trust us. And if you really picked up and listened to what Joe just said, he said something really interesting. He said that our Canadian business is close to $100 million. Well, our U.S. business is just over $100 million. So just think about that and the size and the scope of this market and the opportunity that lies ahead. If we're able to grow that business to that size in Canada, what the opportunity is here where we're truly, truly experts.
So feel really good about how we can work together because we've spent a lot of time today talking about how we're going to plug in the back end. We're going to plug the front end into a very, very sophisticated way also. So get ready. Here we go. This is going to be fun.
Yeah. I guess that feeds into my next question of, aside from plugging into the Kontoor framework, are there any changes to how Helly Hansen organizationally will operate from today?
Yeah. So we're going to leave Helly Hansen alone as a standalone business. It'll be headquartered in Oslo. It'll report directly to me with my knowledge and experience in the business. And then our Denim business will stay running just like it is now, but obviously all coming into our leadership team that we have here in Greensboro.
So I think that the front end of the business will have a real opportunity to thrive. We're going to open up that funnel for Helly in a really big way across the globe. And we're going to let those folks. It's been really fun to hear from them and understand the opportunities that they think are out there. And now we're going to present them with the opportunity to do everything that they said they could do. So this will be a really interesting period of time for us.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Mauricio Serna from UBS. Please go ahead.
Great. Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Sorry, I joined a little bit late. So maybe could you just remind us what was the revenue of Helly Hansen in 2024 and sales growth expectations over the next three years? And then just maybe also a reminder of what is Kontoor Brands' current size of your Outdoor business? Thank you.
Yeah, Mauricio, I'll take that. So Helly Hansen generated $650 million of revenue in 2024 and about $75 million of EBITDA. In the materials that we posted this morning, we've got expectations for the business to generate more than $680 million of revenue for the full- year 2025 and more than $80 million of EBITDA. And that excludes the synergy opportunity that we see.
Then your comment about we haven't really broken out categories relative. It's a little bit harder for us to break that out, but I'd roughly call it around $200 million for our Outdoor business. There's a lot that happens there because a lot of people wear our denim outdoors.
Got it. And then just the last thing also, I think when you were providing some details on the business initially, you mentioned Sportswear. So I was wondering if there's anything else besides Outdoor or when you talk about Sportswear for Helly Hansen. And as you think about the operation of the business, how will you prioritize Sportswear versus Workwear growth initially? Thank you.
So good question. We have talked a lot about Sportswear, and we have talked a lot about the Workwear piece of the business. There also is a Sailing component. So there's a fairly sizable Sailing business around the globe. And what we really like about that business is how synergistic it is for the Outdoor Sportswear business because of the innovation between the two. I mean, when you're out there on the high seas and the water and you're trying to have less water penetration, keep yourself warm, that type of thing, it's not that much different than what you're doing on top of the mountain. So it works really well together. But I would tell you, we're not going to overemphasize one that much over the other. We plan on growing both of those businesses.
And we think that there's fairly sizable opportunity in both of those big businesses, both the Sportswear and also the Workwear business. Again, we have touched a lot on this North American opportunity. The Workwear business is really nonexistent here in the United States. And also, when we've toured the market and spent a lot of time with the team, they really think there's still a tremendous footprint opportunity in the European and Canadian markets for the Workwear business too. So that was another really attractive reason for us to go ahead and do this deal.
Yeah. Mauricio, we talked about two segments, so Sport and Workwear. Both of those segments have grown at a double-digit rate over the last several years. So we're very excited about the opportunities for both segments of the business.
Great. Thank you for that, and congratulations.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as there are no further questions, I will now hand the conference over to Scott Baxter for his closing comments. Scott?
Thank you. And thanks, everybody, for participating today. And I know it was really short notice, but you could probably hear it from Joe and I today. We're pretty excited about this opportunity. We've been doing this since 2018 and regularly have received questions about what's your M&A strategy. And there is a big background for our company in that we've done a lot of these deals before in the past. And I think that we have shown that we have been extremely patient.
And one of the things that we've talked about is that we had categories that we really liked. And then this opportunity presented itself in the two categories that were at the exact top of our list, Workwear and Outdoor. And it was just so compelling to go ahead and do this. And the timing was really good too because if you think about a lot of the talk that we've had about our balance sheet and how strong it is right now. So the ability to put that to work in a really sophisticated way from a capital standpoint to really go ahead and gain a great return for our shareholders going forward, we felt like the timing was really right to do this.
So stay tuned. We're going to spend a lot of time talking about this in the future, obviously. It's going to be a great journey. We're really, really excited to welcome the Helly family into our family. And we'll look forward to talking to you next week for our fourth quarter conference call. So thanks again for the time today, everybody. Appreciate it.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference of Kontoor Brands has now concluded. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.