Entries by jeff

Why Are Millennials Still in the Basement?

While I’m quite sure you should no longer be segmenting your customer group strictly by age, it’s still true that somewhere between a lot to many or even most of them are coming from the so called millennial generation.  So what think and how they’re doing matters to us. For many of them, the Great […]

PacSun’s August 1 Quarter; Expense Cuts and Debt Restructuring Doesn’t Create Customers

For the quarter ended August 1, PacSun’s revenues fell 7.6% to $195.6 million from $211.7 million in the same quarter last year. Comparable store sales, including ecommerce, were down 6%. The gross margin fell from 29.1% to 25.8%. 1.1% of the gross margin decline was due to a decrease in their merchandise margin. 2.1% was […]

What Great Brands Do by Denise Lee Yohn

What Great Brands Do by Denise Lee Yohn was published in 2014.  I met Denise when I was in the San Diego area to make a speech and talk to a company about some consulting.  Honestly, I don’t read business books as often as I used to (which explains why this page isn’t updated more […]

Quiksilver’s 10Q; Not Really a Surprise

In the aftermath of Quik’s bankruptcy filing, the 10Q feels like an afterthought. Still, it’s worth a brief review. There was no conference call. Hell, what’s left to say? In the quarter ended July 31, revenues fell 11.1% to $336 million from $378 million in the same quarter last year. Gross margin didn’t do much […]

What’s “Bankruptcy” and How Does it Work?

What exactly is a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and how does the process work? A Chapter 11 is a “reorganization” bankruptcy. That is, it is filed with the assumption that the filer will use the protection of the court to reorganize its finances so that it can continue as a going concern.  That doesn’t always […]

The Quiksilver Conundrum; There Has to be a Deal

I’ve resisted writing this, but with the recent article in Bloomberg highlighted by Boardistan and Shop-Eat-Surf reporting, also based on a Bloomberg, that Quik had hired a restructuring firm, I guess there’s no reason not to. What I want to do is take you through Quik’s circumstances and choices based on their most recent balance […]