Billabong

Billabong’s announcement about sales trends since the end of October and the actions it’s taking may portend issues for other companies as well as for Billabong. Let’s take a look at what they announced, what actions they are taking, how they found themselves in this position, and how it relates to the global economic environment. Here’s […]

Billabong held its annual shareholders meeting October 25th.  Chairman Ted Kunkel and CEO Derek O’Neill made short speeches you can read here that contained a few pieces of interesting information. Looking over the longer term, however, I am more interested in an issue they discussed and acknowledged as being important, but didn’t really get into at

Billabong’s annual documents (which you can see here and here) provides us with a superlative opportunity to look at the nexus of a company’s strategy and its operating environment. The conference call transcript was also worth reading, but it seems to have disappeared from their web site. I can send anybody who wants it a copy. Of

Billabong announced yesterday that its Net Profit after Taxes in constant currency would be lower this fiscal year than last year by 2% to 6% due to the problems in Japan. Previously, as announced on February 18, they had expected it to be flat. The announcement describes their position in Japan and the disaster’s impact on it. Happily,

Billabong’s acquisition of West 49 was the biggest retail expansion by a brand so far. We’ll see more brands buying more retailers and opening more stores. This article is about why. What are the motivations and the industry impacts? And what are some of the conflicts and contradictions companies will face as they pursue this strategy? Some of this is

Billabong management told us at least six months ago that 2011 would be a “transition year” and it is. But the strategy they started to tell us about a few years ago remains intact and they continue to pursue it. As I’ve written before, I generally agree with that strategy and my experience is that companies that

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

On October 26th, Billabong Chairman Ted Kunkel and CEO Derek O’Neill made speeches at the company’s annual meeting.  Together they only run to to seven pages of big, easy to read, type.  You should read them, and you can read them here.  There’s a lot of good, succinct information on why fiscal 2011 is a

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