People don’t like people who make them uncomfortable. And when I do it, like now, I’m pretty sure it makes it less likely I get calls for consulting. But I’m all about trying to help you to run your businesses better and think you need the bad news as well as the good. Probably you […]
Projected Retail Closings and Job losses for the Year Read More »
Zumiez has been telling us for some time now, correctly I think, that they are approaching the number of Zumiez stores the U.S. market can support. They ended their January 31 year with 603 U.S. stores. No doubt they will continue to selectively open (and close) stores and there is certainly no exact number of
Zumiez’s New Concept Store Read More »
Last Week Emerald Exhibition (EE) filed the S-1 that includes the first draft of its prospectus to go public. Because it’s the first draft a lot of information (like price per share and number to be sold) is missing. Still, it’s worth a review. We’ll summarize the company’s history and activities, look at the financial
GoPro’s press release of yesterday had the following title: “GoPro to Offer $150 Million of Convertible Senior Notes due 2022.” Well, okay, they’ve run through a lot of cash lately. That they might want to raise some makes sense. We don’t yet know anything about the terms. “The interest rate, conversion rate, offering price and
An Intriguing Transaction: GoPro Wants to Sell Some Debt. Read More »
The way The Buckle 10K and conference call come across, you can’t quite decide, at first read, if they’ve made a specific decision to focus on brick and mortar or if they are just way, way behind in online. I think it’s the former given how they describe their business and how they compete.
It’s Not All About the Omnichannel? Could That Be Okay? The Buckle’s Annual Report Read More »
It’s all the Lydians’ fault. The Lydians were a people who lived in what’s now Eastern Turkey in the second millennium BC. Herodotus, writing around 450 BC, tells us this about them: “…the Lydians lived their lives in a way not dissimilar to the Greeks. So far as we know they were the first people
Amazon’s Retail Plans Read More »
Globe published its results for the six months ended December 31st on February 21st and I missed it. Better late than never I guess. Happily for Globe, its largest market in Australasia was strong because revenues in Europe and North American (NA) were down pretty dramatically. Total revenues fell 10.6% from $79.1 in the six
The U.S. is Tough on Another Company: Globe’s Half Yearly Results Read More »
I’m always grateful when a company has a short 10K and conference call. I’m efficient at spotting the meat in a 10K, but it’s easier when it’s 77 pages, as Zumiez’s was, instead of 177 pages. Though when it’s 177 pages, there’s usually some really interesting stuff. Zumiez doesn’t need more than 77 pages. They
Zumiez’s Annual Report and Some Questions I’d Ask if I were an Analyst. Read More »
It’s accurate to say that VF ran into the same issues and economic dislocations as other brands and retailers. During their fourth quarter, ended December 31, 2016, revenues fell 2.7% from $3.41 billion to $3.32 billion in the quarter ended December 31, 2015 (the prior calendar period- PCP). Net income was also down from $312
How Was VF’s Year? Read More »
Six months ago, reporting on Billabong’s results for the whole year, I said this was a challenging turnaround, Billabong was doing things right, they were starting to see results, but the market was tough, and implementing their plan was taking longer and costing more (perhaps because it’s taking longer) than they’d initially expected. That’s all
Billabong’s Six Month Report: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same Read More »