Kontoor Brands sells Lee brand in $1 billion deal

Greensboro-based Kontoor Brands is selling Lee to Authentic Brands Group in a deal valued at up to $1 billion, a move that reaches far beyond corporate finance and into the future of one of downtown Greensboro’s most recognizable headquarters companies. Kontoor said the package includes a $750 million initial transaction value and a $250 million earnout opportunity, and that the sale is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

For Guilford County, the biggest immediate question is what stays put. Kontoor still anchors its operations downtown, with headquarters buildings at 400 North Elm Street and 335 Church Court and a local presence that the company said included nearly 600 employees in those buildings in 2019. Kontoor also said more than 900 associates worked and lived in the Greensboro area that year. The company’s footprint extends to Revolution Mill, where it has housed merchandising, design, product development and innovation work, tying the business to the city’s old textile corridor as much as to its modern office base.

The transaction also shows how sharply Kontoor has been narrowing its focus. On May 7, the company said it had started a competitive process to sell Lee, moved the brand into discontinued operations and said Lee accounted for about $195 million in first-quarter revenue. Kontoor reported first-quarter revenue of $808 million including discontinued operations, with $613 million from continuing operations, and said full-year 2026 Lee revenue was expected to be about $750 million. The board also approved a new $750 million share repurchase authorization. Kontoor said proceeds from the sale are expected to go toward increased buybacks and voluntary term loan payments as the company concentrates on Wrangler and Helly Hansen.

That shift matters in Greensboro because Kontoor’s identity is tied to the city’s manufacturing past. The company has said Greensboro was central to the development of America’s textile industry in the 1900s, and that Wrangler emerged from the Hudson Overall Company in Greensboro in the early 1900s. Lee itself says it was founded in 1889 by H.D. Lee and began manufacturing workwear in 1912. Kontoor opened the Lee + Wrangler Hometown Studio downtown on June 14, 2019 as a consumer research and test-and-learn space, making the brand’s presence visible in the city center well beyond a balance sheet.

Authentic said Lee generates about $1.5 billion in annual retail-equivalent sales across 73 countries, with nearly 40% of sales coming from outside the United States and Canada. Authentic said it plans to convert Lee into a licensing model after closing, which it expects in the second half of 2026. Kontoor, meanwhile, reported 2025 revenue of $3.15 billion, 10,600 employees worldwide and 73% of sales generated within the United States, underscoring how much of its business still depends on the domestic market even as its Greensboro base remains central to the company’s identity.