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.
Piper Jaffray has just released the results from their 17th semi-annual survey Taking Stock With Teens and as might be expected the news is not good. Teens are now spending 14 percent less on fashion and in juniors it was down 19 percent. Looks like the bottom of the “discretionary recession” was not hit last summer as Piper Jaffray claimed in their last report.
“After the drop in teen spending stabilized last fall, it is apparent that the continued challenges in the economy are having a dramatic impact on teen spending this spring and the 14 percent decrease is a direct reflection of this,” said senior research analyst Jeff Klinefelter. “The decrease in spending leads us to believe that the economy is forcing parents and teens to cut back on spending across the board. Teens and their parents are still buying new clothes, footwear and accessories, but are more selective and increasingly price conscious. This will force retailers to discount prices and offer unique promotions to keep a steady flow of spending until the economy improves.”
Luckily, for the action sports fashion world the number one “brand” is still what Piper Jaffray calls “West Coast Brands.” Yeah, our category is so small that Piper continues to group PacSun, Volcom, Quik, and Zumiez together in one category, otherwise none of them would likely show up on the list. The rest of the list looks something like this:
Hollister, Nike, Forever 21, and American Eagle. Specifically among brands ranked by young women, Hollister took the “most preferred” position, while West Coast Brands continued to remain a favorite among young men.
For the rest of the highlights including notes on teen video games, digital, music and restaurant spending follow the jump. [click to continue…]
To celebrate the Grand Opening of Jed Noll’s surfboard shop in San Clemente, Jed’s proud parents Greg and Laura Noll beat on the Redwood Wireless, which connected with the Coconut Wireless and sent out an invitation that apparently no one could refuse.
On a fresh spring afternoon in April – the 4th to be exacto – Jed Noll’s surf shop at 1709 North El Camino Real in San Clemente was the place, and the faces included three-plus generations of surfers, writers, photographers, industrialists and other surf notables.
Phil Edwards and C.R. Stecyk made rare public appearances and they cruised and schmoozed with Paul Naude, Bruce and Dana Brown and entourage, L.J. Richards and Eddie Talbot (E.T)
The Scandinavian countries were represented by the brothers Aaberg – Kemp and Denny and also Karl Ekstrom and a large number of tall attractive blondes. [click to continue…]
Shane Wallace and the crew at Active Ride Shop aren’t going to let a little bankruptcy dampen their 20th anniversary celebrations one bit. They kicked it off with four parties in four counties, according to a post on their blog Active News.
Things kicked off at the Cantina Lounge in Fullerton. Then a gathering at Omaha Jack’s in Rancho. The amazing Fai Do Do LA played host for the LA stop and we finished big with the ever popular Bondi Bar in downtown San Diego! Thanks to the Antics/Toyota Matrix crew for throwing down the hefty bar tab, RED BULL for all the RED BULL VODKA, and all of the bars for showing love!The tour featured the musical talents of Hen Heart and our main man Wes Rogers. The boys brought the girls out to shake their booties on the floor and Wes broke a few hearts.
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.
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. [click to continue…]
[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.
Tiffany Montgomery has been all over the Active bankruptcy coverage on Shop-eat-surf.com. Today, she drove to the Federal Courthouse in Riverside and picked up a copy of the bankruptcy filings and is kicking down all the details.
Also of note is the list of Active’s 20 largest unsecured creditors, which reads like a Who’s Who of action sports brands. Active owes a total of $8.8 million to its 20 largest unsecured creditors. . . .Interestingly, only one brand is on the list of secured creditors – the Burton Corporation. Secured creditors get payment priority in a bankruptcy.
Montgomery also notes that Active is cutting their contracts with the following team members: “Andrew Reynolds, Kenny Anderson, Billy Marks, Erik Ellington, Daewong Song and Jim Greco.
Looks like P-Rod and some others have escaped the axe of the time being. For more details (including the list of creditors with amounts owed) follow the jump.
The Active Ride Shop in San Diego’s Gaslamp district is now shuttered and closed. Sad, when we remember that the grand opening party was only six months ago. We’re hoping Active won’t have to close more than 10 shops, but we’re glad they are doing what they need to do (which apparently includes filing for bankruptcy according to a press release posted on Transworld Business) to stay in business.
Pac Sun reported Q4 numbers today and guess what? They sucked. But according to the Orange County Business Journal they were at least “better than expected.”
Losses for the quarter ended Jan. 31 totaled $27.1 million, or 42 cents per share, compared with a profit of $5.2 million, or 7 cents per share, last year. . . For the year, the Anaheim, Calif.-based company reported a loss of $63.8 million, or 59 cents per share, compared with a loss of $30.4 million, or 65 cents per share, last year. Revenue fell 4 percent to $1.25 billion from $1.31 billion last year.
It would be fun to be in a business where you have $63.8 million a year to lose, wouldn’t it?
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:
