Below is the handout I distributed at IASC’s Skateboard Industry Summit at the end of April where I talked about the evolving retail environment. These are quotes from recent fillings and conference calls by Billabong, Genesco (owners of Journeys), Nike and Zumiez about how they see the retail environment and their involvement in it. Except […]
What Are Big Brands Doing in Retail? It’s a Bit Scary Read More »
It was, by any measure, a successful conference and IASC did a great job putting it on. Attendance, at around 95, was up over last year, which was also up over the first year of the conference the previous year. The attendees were the senior people from the right companies. The food continues to improve (breakfast still needs
Notes from the Skateboard Industry Conference Read More »
Given that Vail says the snow up to about Christmas was the worst in 30 years, you have to say that they really did okay. But I think the most interesting thing in the whole 10Q was the disclosure that 13 holders of contracts to purchase Ritz-Carlton Residences had sued to get out of the contracts
Vail 2nd Quarter Results- Watching Real Estate Will Be Interesting Read More »
A sales decline of 2.4% for the quarter ended Jan. 31, 2010 compared to the same quarter the prior year, from $443.7 to $432.7 million isn’t what you’d like to see. Then you notice that their gross margin percentage rose from 46.7% to 51.3% and that their gross profit was up by 7.2% even with
Quik’s Quarter Ended Jan. 31, 2010; Great Tactics- What’s the Growth Strategy? Read More »
I was recently paging through a couple of Transworld consumer mags (Surf and Skate I think) and something caught my attention. I don’t know what made me notice it, but I suddenly realized there was not one non-endemic advertisement in either mag. Okay, maybe I missed one, but there was no Ford Trucks, Mountain Dew, AT&T or
An Interesting Advertising Observation; What Does it Mean? Read More »
In my analysis of Billabong and Genesco, I have spent some time talking about their retail strategies and the possible impact on the action sports retail market, especially on the core retailers. Zumiez’s 10K has me thinking about this again. I would first like to thank Zumiez for keeping their 10K to only 75 pages,
Zumiez’s 10K for Year Ended Jan. 30, 2010; The Strategy’s the Thing Read More »
Genesco, the owner of Journey’s, reported its results for the quarter and year ended January 10th in early March. A couple of days later they made an investor presentation that discussed these results. I’ll talk briefly about their numbers, but what really caught my attention was their discussion of the retail environment and their retail strategy. Genesco
Genesco’s Take on The Retail Business Read More »
Billabong released its numbers for the six month ended December 31, 2009 last week and held a conference call. Though clearly not immune to a tough economy, the company’s raising of capital to strengthen the balance sheet, long term focus on brand equity, willingness to lose some sales rather than become too promotional, realism as to
Billabong’s Semi-Annual Report Read More »
As they do every ASR, IASC and BRA hosted a round table meeting by invitation only to discuss issues of mutual interest and, as usual, I attended. The meeting was well attended and the exchange lively. The first issue on the table was Manufacturers’ Suggested Retail Pricing (MSRP) and Minimum Advertised Pricing (MAP). I’ll assume you know
The BRA/IASC Roundtable at ASR Read More »
The beer is a lot cheaper in Denver, assuming you don’t actually consider the beers they handed you at the gambling tables in Vegas to be free. The hotels are more expensive and getting to said hotels from the airport takes longer. Most of the people I talked with (by no means a scientific sample) would
Notes From the SIA Show in Vegas, Uh, I Mean Denver Read More »