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American Skiing Sells Steamboat; Leverage and Seasonality- a Tough Combination

Resorts

How many of you were with me in nineteen ninety whatever at the Transworld Snowboarding Industry Conference when then American Skiing Company (ASC) Chairman Les Otten stood up and thanked the snowboard industry for saving the ski resorts? Apparently we didn’t do enough- at least not for ASC. Its last ten years have been largely a process […]

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Zumiez’s 10/31/06 Quarterly Report: Pretty Much Nothing But Good News

Zumiez

Well hell, this is a lot more fun when there’s something negative or at least controversial to gossip about. All I’ve got to go on is the 10-Q for the quarter ended October 28th and things seem awful solid. No executives fired. Sales growing, margins holding up, no interesting litigation. You might as well go read another article. Net

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Make Love, Not War; Blanks and the Park and Recreation Convention. What’s a Skate Brand to Do?

Trade Shows

First time I’ve ever had two subtitles. That must be meaningful. Either I’ve been thinking a lot about this, or I’ve got nothing to say and am desperate to use up space. I suppose each reader will decide which it is.  Not long after I read Cullen Poythress’s article “The War on Blanks” in the September issues of

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The Relationship Between Marketing and Business Risk; Do One and Reduce the Other

General Management, Marketing

Have you ever noticed how often the group of people who create ads, run promotions, and manage sponsorships are called the marketing department? That’s always struck me as kind of odd. I think marketing is the process of figuring out who your customer is, or can be, and why they buy your product. Advertising and promotion are the

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PacSun Quarter and 9 Months Ended 10/28/06- Good Tactics. What’s the Strategy?

Pacific Sunwear (PacSun)

         Pacific Sunwear’s (NASDAQ: PSUN) official SEC filing isn’t out yet (I’m writing this November 26 because I love working Sundays), but I’ve read the press release, reviewed the associated financial statements for the quarter and nine months ended October 28, and listened to the conference call. Let’s look at the numbers first, and then

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What Forward Thinking Retailers are Doing: Trends That Probably Won’t Surprise Anybody

Industry Evolution, Retail

The issues that smaller retailers are facing haven’t changed much. There are too many retail stores, pressure from chains, brand stores and big boxes, a tough financial model, the challenge of keeping margins up, lack of product differentiation, increasing costs, over distribution.   That’s a cheery environment, isn’t it? You’ve got a choice. You can bemoan the unfairness

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The Last Intrawest Annual Report: One Benefit of Being Bought

Intrawest

I’ve always admired Intrawest’s ability to combine and coordinate its real estate activities with the development and management of its mountain resorts. It always seemed like they managed to choreograph the two to maximize the value of both. That didn’t mean, however, that I looked forward to reading their annual  Form 40-F filing with Security and Exchange

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