Apr. 29--A combination of higher pension costs and volatility in currency exchange rates led to a 32 percent decline in net income for VF Corp. in the first quarter, the company said yesterday.

VF Corp, an apparel marketer in Greensboro, said it has $100.9 million in profits compared with $149 million a year ago.

Diluted earnings were down 42 cents, to 91 cents a share. The average earnings forecast was 94 cents by analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

VF also reduced the range of its earnings forecast by as much as 72 cents for fiscal year 2009. It previously had projected fiscal earnings of $5.42 a share, but set a range yesterday of $4.70 to $5.

VF issued its earnings report after the stock market closed yesterday. The share price was up $1.18 to close at $67.28, but it fell more than 9 percent to $61 in after-hours trading.

VF also said it is experiencing a weakness in jeans sales in Europe, premium jeans in the United States and a decline in uniform sales as more manufacturing and petrochemical companies are reducing their staffing in the recession.

Overall, VF had a 7 percent decline in revenue to $1.7 billion even though its four top brands -- Wrangler, The North Face, Lee and Vans -- had upticks in sales.

"These brands continue to gain or hold share in most markets, which gives us confidence in our ability to navigate successfully through these difficult times," VF said in a statement.

It also said it will stop providing quarterly earnings guidance "due to increased volatility in global market conditions."

"Regarding our annual guidance, revenues are now expected to decline by 5 percent to 7 percent, with more than half of the decline due to foreign currency translation," VF said.

"Naturally, as we consider the challenges to our earnings this year, we considered taking further expense reductions in areas such as advertising and product development to help protect our profitability," said Eric Wiseman, the chairman, CEO and president of VF.

"History has shown that investing in strong brands and new products during recessionary times significantly improves a company's prospects for growth when conditions improve, which is why we will continue investing behind our strongest brands."

VF's board of directors declared a cash dividend of 59 cents a share. The dividend is payable June 19 to shareholders registered on June 9.

Richard Craver can be reached at 727-7376 or at rcraver@wsjournal.com.

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