VF Corporation acquires REEF

VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all the outstanding stock of Reef Holdings Corporation ("Reef") from an investor group led by majority shareholder Swander Pace Capital. Terms were not disclosed.

Based in San Diego, California, Reef is a leader in the growing action sports lifestyle market. The company is the global market leader in premium surf-inspired footwear and in 2004 launched an authentic surf apparel line. Reef had sales of $75 million in 2004 excluding royalties, and is looking forward to another year of double-digit growth in 2005. Reef is expected to contribute about $45 million to sales, be neutral to earnings per share in 2005 and accretive in 2006.

Reef will remain headquartered in San Diego, California and will become part of VF's expanding Outdoor coalition, headed by Eric Wiseman, vice president and chairman of VF's Outdoor and Sportswear Coalitions. Outdoor coalition sales exceeded the $1 billion mark in 2004, and have grown nearly seven-fold over the past 5 years.