by The Editors on May 6, 2009
The action sports fashion retail story continues to be grim, but not as grim as analysts had predicted at Zumiez. Today the mall store reported that April sales were only down 13.8 percent versus last year.
Analysts, on average, had expected the same-store sales to fall 14.1%, according to Thomson Reuters. Total net sales for the four-week period ended May 2 decreased 1.7% to $23.8 million, said the specialty apparel retailer.
Not too bad, really.
[Link: Marketwatch.com]
by The Editors on May 5, 2009
This comes as no surprise, but it appears that the board of directors at West 49 has rejected Adrenalina’s offer to purchase the company.
West 49 Inc.’s board of directors has unanimously rejected the unsolicited proposal as it does not believe that pursuing Adrenalina’s proposal is in the best interests of West 49 Inc. or its shareholders. The board of directors noted that Adrenalina is an unlisted U.S. public company that has recently indicated that it does not have the financial resources to file its legally required annual report, that has an unproven business model and operates a very small number of highly expensive retail stores in the U.S., and that has recently made a similar and unsuccessful unsolicited attempt to acquire Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc.
Owwwhh, burn.
[Link: Newswire.ca]
by The Editors on May 4, 2009
ESPN has decided that what they need to sell X Games sponsorship is someone from their NBA sales team, according to a story in the Sports Business Journal.
ESPN has reorganized its X Games sales staff, putting ESPN’s NBA sales executive Michele Krumper in charge of X Games sponsorships and bringing X Games general manager Chris Stiepock to more sales meetings. . . . The move is part of an effort to bolster X Games sponsorship sales in an economic period when finding corporate partners willing to align with sports properties has become more challenging.
More challenging is such a nice way to say it.
[Link: Sports Business Journal]
by The Editors on May 4, 2009
Reno’s monsterous shopping zone The Legends at Sparks Marina is set to open on June 18, 2009 and aside from a Best Buy, Target, and Banana Republic, the mall will also include a Volcom outlet store.
Oddly, neither this new one in Reno, nor the outlet in Preferred Outlets of Tulare, California are listed on Volcom site. Strange, isn’t it?
[Link: About.com]
by The Editors on May 4, 2009
Not content with wading through the press with buyout talks and board member suggestions for Pac Sun Adrenalina CEO Ilia Lekach now wants to buy Canada’s West 49 for 55 cents (Canadian) a share, according to a story on Google news.
“The business synergies from joining West 49 Inc.’s substantial store footprint with Adrenalina’s high-growth lifestyle retailing concept are compelling – especially in this challenging economic environment,” said Ilia Lekach, chairman and CEO of Miami-based Adrenalina in a release.
We can say that $35 million Canadian seems a little more realistic for the four-store chain than the $293 million they wanted to pay for Pac Sun Then again, who doesn’t Lekach believe Adrenalina has “synergies” with.
[Link: Google]
by The Editors on May 1, 2009
You know things are jacked up when Volcom announces that their first quarter profits dropped to more than half compared to last year and the stock still goes up.
Late Thursday, the company said profit fell 55 percent to $4.2 million, or 17 cents per share, from $9.3 million, or 38 cents per share last year. . . Revenue declined 15 percent to $68.3 million from $80.6 million last year.
Apparently, the market thought it would be even worse so the stock climbed 8.9 percent. Wonder if it’s possible to pay analysts to lowball expectations?
If you missed the call, the entire transcript can be read here on Seeking Alpha.
[Link: Forbes]
by The Editors on April 30, 2009
Volcom will discuss their 2009 first quarter results today in a conference call at 1:30 PST. Join in to hear just how poorly the surf fashion market has gotten.
The conference call will be available to interested parties through a live audio Internet broadcast at www.volcom.com. Volcom intends to utilize this webcast event to discuss financially oriented goals and objectives and to disclose material company and industry-based topics in an open manner. The company does not plan to report or comment on its progress during the current fiscal quarter.
We’re interested. . .
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on April 29, 2009
Two lawsuits brought against Zumiez by shareholders have been dismissed according to a story in the Puget Sound Business Journal.
The Everett retailer of youth clothing (NASDAQ: ZUMZ) said one suit was dismissed with prejudice by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. The suit claimed that Zumiez and its officials made materially false or misleading statements during March 14, 2007, to Jan. 4, 2008, and engaged in insider trading. . . Zumiez added that a related shareholder action that was filed in Snohomish County was also voluntarily dismissed.
But that wasn’t enough to keep UBS from downgrading the company from neutral to sell.
[Link: Puget Sound Business Journal]
by The Editors on April 29, 2009
Looks like the economy can’t keep a good company down as Billabong’s stock price has closed above $10 for the first time since December 2008, according to a story on Goldcoast.com.au.
The Burleigh-based company has been riding a wave of renewed optimism that the US market has finally turned the corner, punctuated last weekend by rosy comments from US President Barak Obama’s economic adviser Lawrence Summers.
Wait, we leave the keyboard for a couple days and the recession is already over? We should go outside more often.
[Link: Goldcoast.com.au]
by The Editors on April 29, 2009
Burton announced yesterday they have have hired Mike Rees as CFO of Burton Corporation. Rees, who spent the last 16 years working with VF Corp, has an impressive CV including stints at both Reef and Eagle Creek. But there was one one bit of experience that we found especially interesting:
In his early days as a CFO at VF’s Outlet division, he was responsible for the financial operations of approximately 60 retail locations while taking on additional work as the General Merchandise Manager.
We’re guessing those skills are going to come in very handy sooner rather than later. Follow the jump for the entire press release. [click to continue…]
The action sports fashion retail story continues to be grim, but not as grim as analysts had predicted at Zumiez. Today the mall store reported that April sales were only down 13.8 percent versus last year.
