by The Editors on April 16, 2009
Spy Optic parent company Orange 21 announced yesterday financial results for the year ending December 31, 2008 and though net sales were up 2% over 2007 to $47.3 million, their losses increased from $8 million in 2007 to $15.2 million in 2008.
“The current recession continues to have a significant impact on our sales,” commented Stone Douglass, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer. “The impact is being felt not just in the US, but overseas as well. During these last few months we have reacted swiftly to reduce operating expenditures in all our companies and increase our sales and marketing efficiencies. In addition, we have been seeking new opportunities on a global basis.”
Douglass says that he is excited about some new opportunities in the future, but damn, that losing $23 million in two years seems like a pretty large wall to climb even with the office being closed on Fridays and cutting employee pay by 10 percent.
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by The Editors on April 15, 2009
According to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald Billabong is a nightmare brand for ad agencies and television networks because they are playing by their own rules all the way around.
It does not make TV commercials, it does not book space on television. And its magazine ads are produced by its own team. Billabong is not just a surf brand, it is a media company, says the person in charge of producing the hours of surf-related content. . . “This just ups the ante,” says Scott Wallace of the deal announced last week with Sony. “We are turning into a media company as well as a clothing company.”
Wallace, formerly with IMG, and now VP New Media and Strategic Partnerships, appears to be putting Billabong on the right track. As we’ve said several times: if you want to control your message, be the messenger. And it looks like Wallace is doing just that.
[Link: Sydney Morning Herald]
by The Editors on April 15, 2009
The Magazine Publishers of America just released their print advertising numbers for Q1 2009 (Jan. to Mar. 2009 vs. 2008) and as might be expected things are not looking good. On average pages in the titles tracked by the MPA are down 26.1 percent and revenue is down 20.6 percent.
In the action sports magazine space Transworld Media has the only titles tracked and advertising pages were down across the board. Here are Transworld Media advertising page totals for Q1 2009 as reported by the MPA.
2009 2008 %Change
TRANSWORLD SKATEBOARDING 304.15 369.17 -17.6
TRANSWORLD SNOWBOARDING 359.48 429.11 -16.2
TRANSWORLD SURF 195.54 279.69 -30.1
RIDE BMX 75.16 93.34 -19.5
TRANSWORLD MOTOCROSS 244.17 259.04 -5.7
According to the MPA, in the first three months of this year Transworld Media print advertising was down a total of 251.85 pages when compared to the same period in 2008. Assuming that a page in the magazines cost on average $2,500 this drop in ad pages represents about $630,000 in revenue.
On a positive note: when compared to the magazine market in general Transworld’s titles are doing well, about 10 percent ahead of the market in every mag but Transword Surf. So by that metric, things are looking pretty good.
Then again, we don’t think the print advertising market will ever get better.
[Link: Magazine Publishers of America]
by The Editors on April 9, 2009
Yesterday, while strolling the isles of our local Walmart in search of storage bins and Giant Cheetos we noticed some attractive women’s monokinis. They were from some brand called Op and selling for $20.
It got us thinking: what is the difference between a $20 Op bikini and an $78 Roxy suit? Aside from mean girl scorn all we could come up with was marketing. For people who don’t mind wearing a Walmart bikini (and there are millions of them) there is no reason to spend four times as much.
So last night when TransWorld Business and Shop-Eat-Surf were tweeting away about how the La Jolla Group was doing a special Rusty line for J.C. Penney we had to chuckle. Of course they are. And so is Ryan Sheckler and Zoo York. Because if you’re just in the game to get paid there is really is no reason to protect your distribution. If Op is any indicator this could be the biggest sales year ever for all three companies. And what is wrong with that? You know, aside from everything. . .
For the latest on the J.C. Penney action fashion coup follow the jump.
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by The Editors on April 5, 2009
It seems that executives who leave the privately held Australian surf giant Rip Curl can pretty much forget about keeping any of the shares they got as part of their employment. Most recently Rip Curl has bought back 150,000 shares from former board chairman James Strong for $1 a piece, according to a story in the Sydney Morning Herald.
It appears that the company has only paid $1 a share for Mr Strong’s stake, as part of an arrangement to buy them back at the price they were issued seven years ago. . . . But Rip Curl’s C-class stock is set at $62 a share, valuing Mr Strong’s 148,412’s shares at a nominal $9.2 million, according to documents filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. . . The final amount paid to the former chairman was part of a “confidential settlement agreement” relating to his departure, the company said in ASIC filings on Friday.
You don’t stay “closely held” by letting voting shares get to far from the nest, apparently.
[Link: Sydney Morning Herald]
by The Editors on April 3, 2009
After a meeting between Adrenalina CEO Ilia Lekach and several independent Pacific Sunwear directors Pac Sun has announced that the proxy contest is over.
Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. said Friday that Adrenalina, which has expressed its interest in acquiring the California teen clothing retailer, has ended its proxy contest by withdrawing its nominations of four candidates for election to the Pacific Sunwear board.
Maybe it’s the hearty retailer climate.
[Link: FOX Business]
by The Editors on April 2, 2009
After the January 2009 ASR show we’d be surprised at nothing, but ASR today announced that they are moving the dates for 2010 to February 3-4 and August 14-16.
“By realigning ASR’s dates we believe the industry can best position itself for future growth,” says Andy Tompkins, ASR Group Show Director. “Through ongoing dialogue with both our exhibitor and retail attendees, it became apparent that the timing of the ASR January show was too early to completely service fall line breaks. In the future, August show dates will allow buyers to preview the entire landscape of action sports product before making purchase decisions.”
And according to quotes from VeeCo’s Tom Ruiz, and Lost’s Joel Cooper these dates are great. Follow the jump for the entire release.
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by The Editors on April 1, 2009
As baffled as we are by the timing of this announcement (no, it’s not an April Fools joke), it would appear from a story posted on the Transworld Business website that Transworld Media reduced its staff today by eight people.
Here’s what Transworld Business Publisher Rob Campbell said:
We’ve had to report on a lot of layoffs over the past six months. Unfortunately, those stories usually involved friends and great people we’ve had close working relationships with for years. Today, the news hits especially close to home. . . TransWorld has eliminated eight positions within the company. Departments affected are TransWorld Business, Transworld Surf, TransWorld Skateboarding sales, marketing, and finance. More specifically, TransWorld Business lost two editors.
These “eight positions eliminated” do not appear to include a change made yesterday in the sales group at TransWorld’s Tustin office.
[Link: TransWorld Business]
by The Editors on April 1, 2009
[April Fools Day Story 2009] Looks like even the coolest guys in the skateboarding world can be dumb with their money. In a story released this morning the Skatepark of Tampa has announced that it will be filing for chapter 11 reorganization protection after opening too many stores and running up nearly $20 million in debt to a Tampa gentlemen’s club.
Owner Brian Schaefer said that he hopes the bankruptcy filing, while painful, will allow the company, which is celebrating its 16th anniversary, to begin the healing process and return to being a strong company with 993 stores instead of 1001. . . “We look forward to creating a great Skatepark of Tampa that is an asset to all of its partners,” he said. . . . Schaefer and GM, Ryan Clements, have met with 30 vendors in the past three weeks to explain the situation, Schaefer said. He said vendors have been very supportive and have said they will ship fresh goods to Skatepark of Tampa on a COD basis. Some have even said they will offer SPoT credit terms as soon as Skatepark of Tampa filed for bankruptcy, Schaefer said.
For the rest of the sad, sad story and a chart featuring the top 20 creditors click the link.
[Link: Skatepark of Tampa]
by The Editors on March 25, 2009
No surprise here, but looks like Burton was also forced to make some changes to the way they are doing business thanks to the current “no buy” economy, according to the Burlington Free Press.
The cuts include layoffs of “less than 5 percent of its staff in North America,” and a decision by company founders Jake and Donna Carpenter to eliminate their own salaries. . . . “This has been a very painful process for us, and considering the global economic situation, we’ve done everything in our power to save as many jobs as possible,” Burton CEO Laurent Potdevin said in a company news release. . . . “Our goal this entire year has been to cut as many costs as possible on a global level, like sales meetings, travel and new hires so that we could avoid cutting people. Instead of a much larger number of layoffs, we decided to take a different approach, which is temporarily reducing salaries on a sliding scale from 0 to 15 percent for employees in North America.”
Smart business actually.
[Link: Burlington Free Press]
Spy Optic parent company Orange 21 announced yesterday financial results for the year ending December 31, 2008 and though net sales were up 2% over 2007 to $47.3 million, their losses increased from $8 million in 2007 to $15.2 million in 2008.
