by The Editors on December 18, 2008
Looks like we should have jumped in on the $.80 Quiksilver share prices several weeks ago because Quiksilver is fighting its way through some rough times. In their conference call today with analysts they stated that they doing well, but still have a ways to go.
Consolidated net revenues for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008 increased 3% to $606.9 million compared to $587.3 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007. . . . Consolidated net revenues for the full year of fiscal 2008 increased 11% to $2.26 billion compared to $2.05 billion in fiscal 2007. . . . European net revenues increased 16% during the full year of fiscal 2008 to $933.1 million and were up 4% in local currency.
Bob McKnight says:
I am proud of the efforts of the entire Quiksilver team around the world as we fought through a deteriorating global economy to deliver financial results that were consistent with the outlook we provided 6 months ago. As economic conditions continue to worsen in our key markets in the US and in Europe, we’ve continued our efforts to reduce expenses and capital expenditures, to carefully control inventory and to reconfigure our post-Rossignol capital structure.”
Notes from the conference call:
- Europe has been doing extremely well for the company.
- The DC footwear business has been “quite strong.”
- Sales will be down in the low double digits for the first quarter of 09
- Expecting a revenue decline in the high single to low double digits for 2009
- Every five cent swing in the Euro translates into $30 million in sales.
- Quik will open “very few new stores” in 2009. “Two in the US and maybe 2 or 3 in Asia Pacific and a couple in Europe”
- The company is looking to 25 retail stores. Nine will close in 2009; 21 of the stores are in the US, 12 are full-price stores and 41 percent of those are in California, Arizona, Florida.
- Quiksilver’s top 30 customers worldwide do less than 25 percent of the company’s sales.
- Capital expenditures for the coming year will be cut approximately $34 million from $94 million to $60 million.
- They are looking at every area of expenditure and trying to adjust to a new reality as to the projected 2009 revenue.
- Company debt still in the $1 billion range
- In 2009 there will be $70 million in interest expense
- The company also has a $55 million loan, which CFO Joe Scirocco called “the big one” is due on March 14, 2009
The Street appeared happy with the report as the stock rose 10% in after-hours trading.
For the whole press release, follow the jump, or click here for a transcript, or listen to the whole call right here.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
TV production people love this kind of stuff:
Due to heavy snowfall, Winter Dew Tour sport organizers and athletes gathered and agreed to postpone today’s practices and competitions. The call was made to end activity for the day at 1:45 p.m. MT. The events will be rescheduled and the new Friday schedule will be sent later this evening.
Breckenridge is getting plowed. Great news for everyone, bad news for AlliSports. Oddly, this news is not even posted on their own website yet. . . someone needs to wake those VBS.tv guys up and tell them to start producing some content. Damnit!
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
Anon Optics. Great for snowboarding, even better for shielding eyes from tear gas while attempting to disrupt a government in Greece’s Syntagma Square.
Now where is his photo incentive? (Click photo to enlarge).
[Link: Boston.com]
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
Looks like the Trestles Toll Road got another nail in its coffin as the US Commerce Department agreed with the California Coastal Commission’s rejection of the plan.
Federal officials could only override the state’s decision if the project had no alternatives or was necessary to national security, and the announcement this morning said neither of those criteria was met.
Nice work, Surfrider Foundation. People can change things after all.
[Link: LA Times]
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
Bonner Corp., the parent publishing company of Transworld Media has just purchased Scuba Diving Magazine from F+W Media (for an undisclosed amount) to add to their magazine quiver (the already own Sport Diver).
We serve the enthusiast market better than anyone in the business, so adding Scuba Diving to our existing Sport Diver title will only enhance our relationship with the dive industry and its passionate audience,” Bonnier CEO Terry Snow said in a prepared statement.
It seems an odd time to being purchasing more print titles, they must know something we don’t about the future.
[Link: Orlando Sentinel]
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
Santa Cruz Skateboard Shop has partnered up instructional applications developer Whagga Software to produce an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch called GoLearn Skateboarding. The horribly named, 348 mg app costs $4.99 and reportedly allows skaters to “learn different tricks with over 45 high definition videos with slow motion, multiple angles and detailed instruction, and find nearby skateboard parks.”
Skaters want to see different tricks performed by different people in different places. By providing an intimate discussion of how to re-thread a truck axle or watching Josh Mattson walk you through doing a Miller Flip, it’s as if we are speaking directly to the skater. Couple that with a GPS-driven Skate Park Locator for the traveling skater and the GoLearn Skateboarding application is unparalled in today’s market. Our partnership with Whagaa is an exciting one allowing us to transform our vision of Action Sport applications into reality,” comments Danny Keith, CEO of Santa Cruz Skate Shop.
We haven’t downloaded the app yet (and we’re not too optimistic about it teaching us backlips on a rail), but we’ll let you know. If you do download it make sure you do it from iTunes on your computer, not on your phone. This thing is HUGE!
[Link: MarketWatch]
by The Editors on December 18, 2008
Early Tuesday morning it appears that Mammoth Mountain’s Dragon’s Tail slid and took patroller Corey Denton for a 1,000 foot ride, according to the LA Times.
Denton and another patroller were ski-cutting, or using their skis to trigger avalanches in preparation for the opening of that portion of terrain to skiers and snowboarders. . . . The snow broke loose above Denton, however, and took him on a 1,000-foot ride down the slope. He managed to keep his head above the snow but at some point slammed into a tree.
His partner watched Denton the whole way and got him to the hospital where it turned out he only had a couple cracked ribs. Only?
[Link: LA Times]
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
Fuel TV in Australia apparently has a little wider interpretation of exactly what action sports are and we’re sure the crew at Tapout agrees. Every Sunday night Fuel TV features one and a half hours of UFC fighting.
Enjoy watching guys kick the life out of each other? Then this show is for you. This is reality style tv as fighters live together, train together and kick the living daylights out of each other.
How long before it’s playing in the US? Hopefully not for a while.
[Link: Fuel TV Au]
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
Sam Bottoms, the actor who played “California surfer-turned-GI Lance Johnson in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now has died from brain cancer. He was 53,” according to a story in the LA Times.
Bottoms was 20 in 1976 when he was cast to play surfer Lance Johnson in “Apocalypse Now,” in which he was one of the young sailors who accompany Capt. Benjamin Willard ( Martin Sheen) up river in a gunboat for his rendezvous with Marlon Brando’s renegade Col. Walter Kurtz. . . . Bottoms died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles of glioblastoma multiforme, a virulent brain cancer, said his wife, Laura Bickford.
Bottoms helped create some of surfing’s most iconographic moments in serious film. And he will be missed.
[Link: LA Times]
by The Editors on December 17, 2008
Looks like we should have jumped in on the $.80 Quiksilver share prices several weeks ago because Quiksilver is fighting its way through some rough times. In their conference call today with analysts they stated that they doing well, but still have a ways to go.
