The other day I was reading Vanity Fair. That’s a little weird. But my wife gets it, and one of the highlighted cover stories was “Surfing the World’s Giant Waves.” I enjoyed it and learned a little more about surfing history. Still, I was a bit surprised to find the story there. The mag was full of high end fashion […]
Accidental Encounters with Two Magazines and Market Evolution Read More »
Apparently, if you get a whole bunch of retailers who need to buy stuff together with the brands they want to buy from there’s still every reason to have a big old trade show. Maybe, in fact, the bigger the better. The more brands and retailers, assuming they are the right brands and retailers, the more
Surf Expo; The Report of the Death of Trade Shows is Greatly Exaggerated Read More »
A friend of mine who wants to remain anonymous (I get quite a few of those) sent me an email the other day and had an interesting point to make about gross margin for brands who owned retail stores. When a brand opens retail stores they do it at least in part because they expect
Gross Profit Margins; How to Think About Them for Brands with a Big Retail Presence Read More »
Quiksilver continued to improve its balance sheet over the year and quarter, and this conference call is the first in a while where I’ve gotten a sense of where some growth might really come from. We’ll talk about that. But first, I thought some of you might actually want to know how much Quiksilver earned for
My youngest son and I went out to get our Christmas a week or so ago. I headed towards our usual lot, expecting to pay something like $60 for a tree when we spotted a sign that read, “Christmas Trees: $29.95.” Never one to turn down a deal, I followed the signs to the lot where, indeed,
A True Christmas Retail Tale Read More »
On December 15th, Billabong revised its projected results for the six months ending December 31, 2010. Here’s what they said: “The Company’s previous guidance….indicated net profit after tax (NPAT) for the first half year ended December 31 2010 would be slightly lower than the prior year in constant currency terms. The Company now anticipates that first half
Billabong’s Announcement and the Industry Strategic Issues Underlying It. Read More »
PacSun released their earnings and had a conference call on November 22nd. So why am I just getting around to writing about it? It’s because they didn’t file their 10Q until December 9th. I’m funny like that- I like to have the most complete information I can before doing much analysis. What I was hoping for, but not
PacSun’s October 30 Quarter; Big Changes Take Time Read More »
Quiksilver’s stock jumped 22.7% today (December 9th) from 4.75 to 5.68 on the biggest volume since last March. These kinds of moves don’t happen in a vacuum, so I thought I’d check around a bit. An investment banker I know was kind enough to alert me, and I found the following reported on Bloomberg: “PPR SA has
What’s Up with Quiksilver? The Stock Was up Huge Today Read More »
Sometimes I do my best work with a glass of wine. The secret is to never post what you’ve written until the next day, after you’ve read it again. I put “independent” in quotes (there, I’ve done it twice) because as I think about retailers and their relationships with brands I kind of wonder what independent means.
“Independent” Retailers; Are They Still Independent? And What if They Aren’t? Read More »
This shouldn’t take long. The balance sheet has more cash than a year ago, no long term debt, and is solid. The inventory increase of 8.8% since a year ago is a lot less than the 20% sales increase for the quarter (but remember that inventory is at cost and revenue at retail price). Zumiez indicated in the
Zumiez’s October 30 Quarter and Its Position in the Market Read More »