jeff

SIA Article on the Rising Costs of Chinese Production

Financial Management

About a week ago, SIA published a really good article on why production costs in China are rising.  If you haven’t read it you can, and should, here: http://www.snowsports.org/SuppliersServiceProviders/SIANewsletter/NewsletterDetail/Contentid/1272/#top. The article is pretty tactical in nature, and I thought a little bit of the longer term social and political perspective might be interesting to you.  […]

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Quiksilver’s July 31st Quarter: Sales Down, But Profits Up and Balance Sheet Stronger

Quiksilver

Quik is the poster child of a company that’s done what it needed to do following the twin blows of the Rossignol acquisition and the recession. As somebody who’s done a bit of turnaround work, I can tell you it’s no fun, for either management or employees, to be dealing with negative stuff month after month. Quik

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Biting to the Core: The Future of Mom-and-Pops, the Majors, and Brand Labels in the Evolving Retail Landscape

Industry Evolution

In a rapid and rather remarkable convergence of four key trends, a lot is changing for core retailers and for retail in general. The accelerating push of large brands into retail, their reduced dependence on core shops, the decline in the number of true core shops, and the financial/management model required in our new economic

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Globe Makes a Profit. It’s Good to Make a Profit, But There Are Some Unanswered Questions

Globe

Initially, I was relieved. There was no conference call to listen to and try to take notes faster than they could talk. The press release was one page. The Appendix 4E was only 60 pages and the Investor Presentation power point didn’t really add anything to it. I thought I’d get off easy on this one. Turns out it’s

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Zumiez’s Quarter; Other Stuff is More Interesting than the Numbers

Zumiez

The Numbers In the quarter ended July 31st, Zumiez showed some improvement over the same quarter last year. Sales grew 14.7% from $85.2 million to $97.7 million. Comparable store sales were up 9.3% and 24 new stores (net of closings) have been opened since August 1, 2009.   “The increase in comparable stores sales was primarily driven

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Billabong’s Annual Report; Why Their Retail Strategy is a Match to the Economic and Industry Environment

Billabong

Billabong’s annual report and associated documents released around it contain a wealth of information. Some of the questions asked by the analysts in the conference call, and the answers provided, were particularly interesting. But equally important, there are some insights into general market conditions, the evolution of the retail environment and issues with Chinese production. It’s a lot

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Orange 21’s (Spy Optics) June 30 Quarter; What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Strong

Spy

Orange 21 turned a profit of $408,000 in the quarter ended June 30 after losing $254,000 in the same quarter last year. For six months, a loss of $1.058 million was reduced to $529,000. For the quarter, they did it by increasing sales 4.5% and increasing their gross profit margin from 45.9% to 57.8%. And they did it

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I Wonder if PacSun Might Carry Hard Goods; And What Would Zumiez Think?

Pacific Sunwear (PacSun)

Just for a moment, hypothetically, let’s think about PacSun’s turnaround strategy, whether it might make sense for them to start carrying hard goods, and how other companies might react. PacSun’s Strategy That PacSun is in the middle of a turnaround is hardly disputable, if only because their management has characterized it that way. And in my

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