Can a quality strategy consistently pursued over many years and offering a meaningful competitive advantage overcome the impact of cost increases, a weak economy and still cautious consumers? That pretty much sums up Zumiez’s 10K and conference call. The cost increases and weak economy are, of course, issues for all companies. If you’ve never done it, it’s worth clicking through on the link above and reading the first four or five pages More…
Archive for March, 2011
Zumiez’s Quarter and Full Year Results: It’s All About the Strategy and the Economy
Friday, March 25th, 2011Skechers- Some Insights from Their 10K Annual Report
Monday, March 21st, 2011Look, I know Skechers isn’t particularly cool and we don’t pay that much attention it. But it’s another $2 billion company with a strong balance sheet that’s in most segments of the shoe business and, whether we like it or not, competes with more action sport aligned brands. This isn’t a full analysis. I just reviewed the 10K and saw a few things I thought you might be interested in. I’ve been More…
Volcom’s Numbers and Opportunities for Growth
Saturday, March 19th, 2011What I’ve admired about Volcom is its consistent approach to the market over most of the life of the company. You get rewarded for that consistent approach with a strong market position and brand awareness among your target customer group. Reef did the same thing with a similar result over many years. But there comes a time, especially as a public company, when that strong brand positioning with a targeted consumer can More…
What a Specialty Retailer Might Learn From Genesco
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011I’m not really that interested in doing a full analysis of Genesco. Mostly because I doubt you’re that interested in reading it. But Journeys, owned by Genesco is 813 stores and the Journeys group of stores is over 1,000 in the U.S. and Canada so we can hardly not pay attention to what they’re up to. For the year ended January 29th, Genesco’s revenues were almost $1.8 billion. Of that, Journeys represented $804 More…
Billabong Reduces Guidance Due to Japanese Disaster.
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011Billabong 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, none of their employees were seriously hurt. I expect we’ll see similar announcements from other More…
Some Comments on Quiksilver’s Quarterly Report
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011Quik came out with its quarterly results last week and filed the 10Q with SEC all at the same time so I’ve got that and the conference call to work with. I know Volcom and Zumiez have also released their results for the quarter and year, but so far they haven’t filed their 10Ks for me to peruse. When they do that, I’ll give you a report. I don’t like delaying, but I More…
Jarden Corporation; Remember Them?
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011Whenever VF comes out with its earnings, we all gather around to see if we can find anything about how Vans and Reef are doing. But when Jarden, who owns a winter lineup of brands that includes Atlas, Full Tilt, K2, Ride, Line, Little Bear, Madshus, Marker, Morrow, Tubbs, Volkl and 5150, we don’t even notice. Wonder why. Jarden is another large company with $6 billion in revenue. Its Outdoor Solutions Group, of More…
Billabong Purchase of West 49 and Implications for the Industry- Questions, Questions, Questions
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011Billabong’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 a bit repetitive of stuff I’ve written before, but we’re really talking strategy and industry More…
Thoughts on a Longboard Trade Show
Monday, March 7th, 2011Concrete Wave sent out a press release February 21 announcing the first longboard tradeshow in New York City on March 11. I didn’t think about it much at first, but as some time passed, a few questions occurred to me. The first was, “Why does longboarding need its own trade show?” Maybe it doesn’t need it, but apparently the longboarding part of the skateboard industry wants it. Given the growth of longboarding, I More…
A Couple of Things to Think About from VF Industries
Saturday, March 5th, 2011With a different company I’d probably do what I usually do; get down and dirty in the financial statements. Some of you like that. Some hit the delete key early in the article. A few tell me they fall asleep. VF released its results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2010 the week before last. I spent most of this week in Florida with my college roommates without wives playing bad golf More…
