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…]
by The Editors on April 24, 2009
According to a story published today on MediaPost by Fuse Marketing partner Bill Carter says, “Gen Y is drawn to action sports.”
The amount of money spent on traditional sports marketing far exceeds what is spent on action sports, yet action sports continue to replace traditional sports in popularity — with participation numbers in action sports rising at the expense of traditional sports. . . The power of the action sports market has yet to be completely realized. For non-endemic corporations, breaking into this market isn’t as easy as it may seem. Skaters, surfers and snowboarders traditionally are leery of non-endemic brands.
Luckily Fuse Marketing is there to let major corporations exchange their money for action sports credibility. Just look what they did for Right Guard Extreme.
[Link: MediaPost]
by The Editors on April 22, 2009
West 49, the Zumiez of Canada, announced that it lost $8.5-million its fourth quarter ended Jan. 31 “after booking $9.6 million after tax in writedowns of goodwill and other assets, and is in trouble with its bankers,” according to a story in The Star.
For all of last year, which included an extra week compared with the company’s prior financial year, sales rose 2.7 per cent to $210.4 million from $204.9 million. West 49 said it lost $12.3 million, 19 cents per share, compared with the previous annual loss of $2.4 million, four cents per share. Excluding one-time items, the full-year loss was $2.6 million, down from a prior-year profit of $1.5 million.
Not too shabby compared to other mall retailers.
[Link: The Star]
by The Editors on April 20, 2009
The Salt Lake Tribune profiles their newest local business success in a story titled: Skullcandy Feeds Your Head and discovers that while the rest of the market is falling to pieces all over the place, Skullcandy is rapidly growing.
There’s a rumor that there’s a recession,” said Jeremy Andrus, (pictured right) president of the Utah-based Skullcandy headphones company. “But we’re not feeling it.”. . . In 2005, the company had $1.3 million in sales, while this year it’s on track to surpass the $100 million mark. Last fall, the company had about 30 employees. Today, it has more than 60. . . In 2008, nearly 10 million people purchased Skullcandy headphones, which are sold in more than 60 retailers. That catapulted the company to the industry’s No. 2 spot, second only to audio behemoth Sony. . . Brand loyalty is driving Skullcandy’s growth. “We’re gunning for No. 1,” Andrus said, displaying more of the company’s trademark bravado.
[Link: Salt Lake Tribune]
by The Editors on April 17, 2009
We’ve been watching Zumiez lately and thinking about all that cash and no debt and thinking it might be a great stock to invest in when Keybanc Capital goes and gives it an upgrade sending it rocketing up 23.5 percent today. Here’s what they said:
We continue to have a high degree of confidence in the long-term prospects of both the action sports industry and Zumiez’s goal to grow its domestic store base to roughly 800 units,’ the firm wrote, adding that more normalized spring weather patterns in April relative to March could help Zumiez post better-than-expected April same-store sales results.
When we look at their history, there could be a lot of upside.
[Link: Forbes]
by The Editors on April 16, 2009
Entrepreneur magazine checks in with the raddest businessmen on the planet: Ryan Sheckler, bmxer Dave Mirra, and Paul Rodriguez to see how things are hanging. From Sheckler’s “Ferrari F430 parked outside,” to Mirra’s “multimillion-dollar business” to P.Rod’s “shoe boutique” the magazine makes it look like getting paid isn’t so bad afterall.
“I’m a skateboarder,” Sheckler says. “I’ll always be just a skateboarder. But I have these awesome opportunities that I’ll never let go by. It started with skateboarding. It’ll end with skateboarding. The things I do in between are my choice. The haters can say what they want, and the people who are my friends can realize what I’m doing and realize the empire I’m building for myself, and tag along and have some fun.”
Now really, who would hate on Ryan?
[Link: Entregreneur.com]
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.
