Kontoor Brands Sees 6% Profit Uptick by June, Projects 20% Year-End Growth

Kontoor Brands is growing in troubled times. The American group, owner of Lee, Wrangler and Helly Hansen, has closed the first six months of the year with both sales and profits up. The good results for the period have led the company to raise its growth outlook for the full year to 20% higher than the previous year.

Specifically, the company, which until the beginning of the year had focused its portfolio on denim brands such as Lee and Wrangler, closed the first half with a turnover of $1.28 billion, 3.4% more than in the same period of 2024. The group’s profit increased even more, by 5%, to 116.7 million dollars, compared to $111.2 million in the previous year.

The star of Kontoor Brands’ portfolio remains Wrangler, through which the group posted sales of $881.5 million. In addition to accounting for a large part of Koontor’s turnover, the brand posted 5% growth over the first half of the previous year. Lee, meanwhile, generated sales of $365.5 million, 7% less than in the first half of 2024.

Kontoor has raised its growth for the full fiscal year to 20%

The company’s fiscal year, however, was marked by the acquisition of the historic Norwegian outdoor brand Helly Hansen in a deal valued at $900 million. Kontoor Brands took control of the company in mid-February. It aimed to accelerate the growth of the brand, which specializes in technical sports, mountaineering and skiing products.

Since it entered its portfolio, in fact, and up to the close of the first half of the year, Helly Hansen has generated sales of $26.6 million. The company’s plans are for the brand to record a turnover of $680 dollars and a gross operating profit (ebitda) of $80 million by 2025.

“In June, we welcomed Helly Hansen to the Kontoor family and since then, their integration into the company has been off to a great start,“ said Scott Baxter, president and CEO of the group. Following the strong results, and despite the threat of tariffs in the new global trading arena, Kontoor Brands has raised its full-year revenue growth outlook to between 10% to 20%, up from 17% to 19% previously.