Levi Strauss puts Dockers brand on the sales block

Levi Strauss puts Dockers brand on the sales block

MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
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(05-11) 13:51 PDT SAN FRANCISCO (AP) --

Struggling jeans maker Levi Strauss & Co. will try to lighten its debt load by selling its Dockers brand, an 18-year-old clothing line that helped make casual pants fashionable.

The decision, announced Tuesday, marks the latest sign of distress at Levi's, which has suffered through seven consecutive years of sliding sales and cost-cutting trauma that has laid off thousands of workers.

If the San Francisco-based company fulfills its goal of selling Dockers, Levi's will shed about 25 percent of its revenue.

The Dockers brand, sold in 57 countries, generated $1 billion in sales for Levi's last year and an additional $360 million in sales for other wholesalers that licensed the product rights. Levi's collects annual royalties of $22 million from the Dockers licenses. The Dockers division also has about 500 workers -- a fraction of the roughly 10,600 employees on Levi's worldwide payroll.

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