by The Editors on November 5, 2009
Big day behind the behind the velcro curtain. According to a Josh Hunter story on Transworld Business, Quiksilver has laid off 125 employees and eliminated 75 positions in the Americas region.
“We’ve reported to investors over the past couple of quarters that we’d be making expense reductions of between 40–60 million dollars from a combination of SG&A improvements and cost cuts, as well as cost of goods sold improvements, or margin improvements,” [Vice President of Investor Relations Bruce] Thomas explains. “In doing that we started down a path of redefining the structure of our Americas operation in particular because we had been arranged along an organization structure that had brand management silos. We had separate merchandising, design, sales, marketing, sourcing, and production teams by brand for each region. We’re breaking down some of those brand barriers and creating a structure that’s much more functionally based moving forward.”
And yes, as a commenter pointed out, this is consolidation.
[Link: Transworld Business]
by The Editors on November 4, 2009
Transworld Media has announced that Rob Campbell has been promoted to the position of Editorial Director at the company, according to a post on TransWorld Business.
In his new position, Campbell will oversee all six TransWorld titles, including SKATEboarding, SNOWboarding, SURF, Motocross, Ride BMX, and Business. He will also direct content strategy and partnerships across all platforms including print, digital, and television.
Josh Hunter will be “assuming editorial responsibilities” at Transworld Business in the interim. We’re guessing this is just one of several consolidation announcements to come.
[Link: TransWorld Business]
by The Editors on November 4, 2009
Brooke Geery gets right to the questions all of us have about what’s going on at the Kass brother’s glove company in YoBeat’s Hump Day Interview with Grenade CEO Joseph Condorelli.
After all, Joseph is an outsider. A loud-mouthed New Yorker who came from a business background, having never set foot on a snowboard, to run a snowboard company that at the time, was on the brink of disaster. And even though he supposedly didn’t know what a “beanie” was, he’s worked day and night for two solid years to keep the company afloat and thriving. Yeah, it’s not the same Grenade we all hung out at, now it’s a growing company that might actually be around for years to come. Love him or hate him, this is Joseph’s side of the story.
We knew there had to be someone running things behind the camo curtain.
[Link: YoBeat.com]
by The Editors on November 3, 2009
If you’re going to work for the man there’s nothing better than making the man come to you. Take Mike Carter for example, after years of being the marketing face of Electric Visual, he ducks out to take a global marketing job at the Park City, Utah based consumer electronics company Skullcandy. But does he follow the Angel Maroni’s trumpet and head off to the Holy Land? Not at all. He brings Skullcandy to him and the OC Register writes it up.
“The office in San Clemente will literally be a bridge from the snow to the sand,” said Mike Carter, Skullcandy’s vice president of global marketing. “It’s a compelling story because Park City has the best snow in the world and San Clemente is arguably the best surf spot in America. . . .The new 4,500 square foot office will be housed in a former bank on El Camino Real, but it will be far different from the typical buttoned up setting. A mini skate ramp and “boardroom,” a space for employees to hang their surfboards and wetsuits, are in the works. Showers will also be available.
Yeah. And it’s much closer to where Mike lives and he’s not movin’. But he’s a great marking guy so he left that part out.
[Link: OC Register]
by The Editors on October 30, 2009
Sadly, we missed yesterday’s Volcom conference call in which CFO Doug Collier outlined the following:
Total revenue from our US segment including royalties for the third quarter, decreased 22% to 56.8 million, compared with 72.8 million in Q3 of 2008.
- men’s product revenue decreased 19% to 24.5 million for Q3, compared with 30.2 million in the third quarter of 2008
- girls product revenue decreased 46% to 10.9 million versus 20 million in the third quarter of last year.
- Snow revenue decreased 3% to $15.5 million, compared with $15.9 million last year
- Revenue from our Creedlers footwear line was a $136,000 versus $316,000 in Q3 of last year.
- Revenue from our girls swim line was $65,000 versus $71,000 in Q3 last year
There’s more, but you can read it all right here. Or follow the jump for the official press release.
[Link: Seeking Alpha]
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by The Editors on October 30, 2009
LG Corp, the giant Korean electronics company has not renewed its presenting sponsor of the Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast, according to a story in the Tweed Daily News.
Quiksilver event manager Jamie Wood yesterday confirmed the departure of LG from the first-class event. . . “They did not renew their contract with us,” Mr Wood said. . . LG were presenting-sponsors for the 2008 and 2009 events. . . “We are talking with a number of companies at this time about the presenting-sponsor. . . “We are expecting to make an announcement in the next 30 days.”
As one of Australia (and the world’s) premiere surfing events we doubt the Quik Pro will have much trouble landing a new presenting sponsor.
[Link: Tweed Daily News]
by The Editors on October 29, 2009
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. may be in the process of considering the sell off Fuel TV to help finance an approximately $800 million purchase of Travel Channel from Discovery, according to a Media Memo column by All Things D’s Peter Kafka.
If News Corp. does part with the channel, it won’t be a whopper of a deal: Fuel TV, which features skate and surf-themed programming like “The Adventures of Danny and the Dingo” (I know. Me neither) boasts just 25 million subscribers — about half of what cable networks need to get taken seriously by operators and advertisers.
Kafka said he spoke to several Wall Street analysts and no one could come up with an approximate price for the channel, which isn’t all the surprising. No one knows what it’s actually worth, if anything.
[Link: All Things D]
by The Editors on October 27, 2009
Marc Ecko just turned 51 percent of his clothing business into $63.5 million dollars in cash by selling the majority stake to Op and Mossimo parent Iconix Brands.
Iconix said it will form a joint venture company with an affiliate of the sellers of Ecko, whose brands include Ecko Unlimited, Marc Ecko, Rhino logo and Zoo York. . . “This new venture provides me the bandwidth for my brand and allows me the resources and freedom to extend my professional and creative ambitions beyond my current platform of fashion, video gaming and publishing,” said Mr. Ecko in a statement. He will continue as chief creative officer.
Wonder how Zoo York is going to get along with Walmat, Target , and Kohls?
[Link: Reuters and Crain’s New York Business]
by The Editors on October 26, 2009
At Billabong’s annual shareholder’s meeting today CEO Derek O’Neill explained a down year as well as the negative effects of the rising value of the Australian dollar, according to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald.
. . .after-tax profits had dropped more than 13 per cent to $152.8 million last financial year. . . O’Neill said the company’s net profit after tax would decrease by $500,000 for each one cent rise in the monthly average value of the Australian dollar against the US dollar.
For Billabong’s sake let hope the Australian dollars bites down hard in the next few months.
[Link: Sydney Morning Herald]
by The Editors on October 26, 2009
If we owned stock in VF Corp (Vans, Reef, and The North Face’s parent company) we’d be all excited right now about their quarter three numbers. Not because Q3 revenues declined 5 percent (though, that’s pretty good considering). And not because they had a gross margin of 44.3 percent (a near record level). We’d be happy because they’re raising their quarterly dividend for the 37th consecutive quarter.
The Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $.60 per share, an increase of $.01 per share. The dividend is payable on December 18, 2009 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on December 8, 2009.
We’ve always wondered what would be like to own a stock that paid dividends. Just think: if we owned 5,0000 shares of VFC that would be $3,000 or more than 20 years of World of Warcraft!
Oh, and then there was this:
Global revenues of The North Face® and Vans® brands grew 10% and 4%, respectively, in the quarter on a constant currency basis. Total coalition revenues in our Americas businesses rose 1%, while international revenues were up 4% in constant dollars, led by exceptionally strong growth in Asia. Total direct-to-consumer revenues for our Outdoor and Action Sports coalition rose 17% in the quarter, with double-digit growth in our The North Face®, Vans® and Napapijri®brands.
[Link: Reuters]
Big day behind the behind the velcro curtain. According to a Josh Hunter story on Transworld Business, Quiksilver has laid off 125 employees and eliminated 75 positions in the Americas region.
