Clothing and footwear group VF Corporation has said it will invest in six key areas “to build capabilities and enhance the company’s competitive advantage”.

It described the areas that it will prioritise as: design, marketing, its commercial platform, business planning and talent development. The sixth area in which it will invest is one it has called “use-case centric artificial intelligence”.

It made the announcement in the wake of reporting revenues of $4.5 billion for the first six months of its current business year, the period ending September 30. This figure represents a decline of 7% on the same period last year.

Its biggest brand, The North Face, contributed $1.6 billion towards the total, down by 3% year on year.

Vans achieved revenues of just under $1.5 billion, which represents a decline of 16% compared to its results for April-September 2023.

The contribution Timberland made towards the VF total was $704.8 million, a fall of 5% year on year.