I believe Matthew Perrin is a bit short on cash at the moment and looking for a job.

Maybe the boys can help him out?

Potential ASP World Tour licensee in 2014? That'd be a way to hit the ground running.

spoke to Paul yesterday,and have known Derek for a looong time as a good friend.

I think the boys just want to create a real surf brand .the BBG debacle ,which shows when ya get non surfing Kooks on boards who make decisions based on economics only is why BBG and Q/S are now just business's without much soul or surf cred!

Would be so nice to see a new brand that embraces a Patagonia style family business ethic and one not geared towards the endless pursuit of money and power....game on ...good luck boys!!

Am I missing something here? Didn't Derek O'neill preside over Billabong's worst years? It's arguably his misguided retail strategy that has BBG in the tight spot that it's in. Are we supposed to forget the last ten years because Dez surfs?

It must be comforting for all those employees who lost their jobs as a result of Derek's mismanagement to know that he was able to build a $5 million home at Casurina with "five bedrooms, four bathrooms, secure parking for seven cars, kitchen and living areas adorned with New Guinea Rosewood, all spread over four blocks."

Can't wait to see what the new brand looks like.

'not geared towards the endless pursuit of money and power'

Which of the 7 spaces shall I park my car in today.

Yeah to right Brutus, another good style family business ethic is Burton USA.
Its so important to have soul.

Hey Brutus,

I just started a surf brand with a patented technology that Paul may want to hear about and use. I've already been on the ASP tour starting with making this years US Open of Surfing competition jerseys. I put a grip layer on the stomach area and lower chest on the outside and inside of the shirt to give you the best grip to your board. I'm interested in partnering with Paul for sure. Please let him know or get in contact with me [email protected] or 561.818.1868 check website at Roizo.com

Thanks,

Mike
Founder and CEO

Maybe they could build there office and w/house right next door to billabongs,and have a really cool name. Something like a cool band from the 90's. I know how about cult!.
Hang on, that's been done before;bummer.
But I'm sure in this economy,another surf brand with ex billabong honchos founding it will work well. Cause they proved to be able to make great decisions in there old positions.
Hang on, no they didn't; bummer
Good luck to them both

Serious question though - does the world need another premium surf brand? What can this new company offer consumers that's not already (heavily) serviced in the existing marketplace?

I think they can probably offer archaic ideas, tired old tee graphics and vertical retailer integration to inflate margin as much as possible. Should be revolutionary.

There are gaps in the market IMO. Not many, but there are clearly some consumers out there that are aching for something different. I just don't think that this crew are going to be the ones to provide that need.

Makes me want to listen to some old NOFX. Dinosaurs will die

I think I may have helped pay for one of Derek O'Neill's light switches or something over the years. Looks good in-situ.

Hey Roizo,

Do those shirts come with extra grippy webbed gloves and super duper grippy socks for my feet!

hey red hero......before you judge so heavily on Derek...BBG is a public Co,which has a board of directors that OK or gong any and all strategies for the brand.

when Derek left the stock was at $2.68.....what happened after is history now.....

what can a new brand bring to the market place?

Perhaps a SURF brand that is not a public Co thats first obligation is to make profit for the shareholders....

Patagonia is a great example of what a private Co with strong morals and ethics can achieve...why didn't we ever get one in surfing??

maybe this could be a turning point in the industry.....now all we have to do is get Jake Burton out of the s/bd industry !

Maurice, The performance of a company is the responsibility of the CEO. It is weak to blame the board of directors. Any CEO worth their salt (excuse the pun) takes responsibility for their actions at the helm.

The fact that the share price was $2.68 when Derek was sacked is indicative of the performance of the company under his tutelage. From the dizzying heights of of the pre-GFC share price to the $0 value of the BBG brand today, there have been a number ill formed strategies and Derek has to take ownership of a large number of these.

Gordon Merchant himself said it, ‘‘I think with people like Derek, he helped establish our business in Europe but he didn’t really have any formal training as a retailer and he took on a lot.’’. (from the SMH)
He took on a hell of a lot. Buying up unprecedented numbers of retail doors at a time when the domestic and International retail climate was looking decidedly dreary.

It's quite easy to see from the outside that he saw the margins that other retailers were making on their house brands and he decided that billabong needed a slice of that sweet pie. Trouble was, people were just waking up to the australian margin rape thanks to the internet.

So he walked away from Billabong's core business, the one they have always excelled at, which is wholesaling. Launa and the rest of the crew have merely been running around trying to pick up the pieces ever since.

Many good people lost their jobs/careers in this process. What did Derek lose? Nothing. In fact he walked away with a 2.5 MILLION DOLLAR PAYOUT.

See why some people might be hesitant to say that Derek did a good job?

Although, I do agree that there is room for a new type of surf brand in the market. Also agree that Patagonia is a great example. Not sure about Burton though. It's great that they have not floated the company and I hear that Jake treats his employees very well, but they are somewhat predatory in their actions.

Remember the time burton bought up the Program (Forum, Foursquare, Special Blend) and then quietly wound them down a year or so lately?

I know why I surf and it's not to make Neal Diamond look a likes make money .If you look at take your priorities in order of essential needs ; then don't get the cart before the horse ! Go buy the surfboard then wear something to cover the noodle !!! You can surf in the nud , they wont make to much money in the surf outlets selling those boardies .

Red Herro.....so Gordon admitted that Derek didn't have the training,but the board of directors still let him buy retail space all over the planet ,as they ahhh ...........didn't agree?

Any major shift in direction of a public Co needs to be ratified by the board......

Derek did not walk away ,he was sacked,the decision was made at in the morning,and he was escorted from the Building by security in the afternoon.....

I am sure Derek feels some responsibility,but the infighting at Board level did not help...you can see that now with all the fighting over the Company by the Financial Co's and the fact that Paul Naudes bid with Alamont failed,but it still goes on..

to say the brand BBG is worthless is just plain idiotic......

When the share price was $2.68 that is what the market was projecting as the value of the Co....Laura Inman did a terrible job in that she could not come up with a plan that the market could believe in or execute.....

Here in the USA RVCA is onfire as Hurley are,BBG sales are still doing OK....the BBG group still has some good brands....

Derek did his best,was not helped by a disfinctional board,but there is still a lot of value left...

QS have also sacked a huge number of personal and team riders....maybe a Public Co doesn't work longterm in the Surfing Lifestyle market?

As for Burton...ahhhhh....the devestation he has wrought in the Sbd Industry is unparalleled .....but that's another story.....Grrrrr

@Brutus
You're starting to sound like Derek O'Neill's PR agent. It would be interesting to know what the share price was when he joined Billabong, not when he was shown the door. Everyone who has been involved with its management and board over the last five years has to cop some of the blame - and most of them have left with well-lined pockets. The grunts who work in the shops can fend for themselves apparently. Whenever a grassroots - for want of a better word - brand goes public, it puts profit first and all that touchy-feely stuff that it was supposedly founded on is going to finish a very distant second. The stock market is a harsh marker. That's the case with Billabong, that's the case with Quiksilver, although it's recovered somewhat. Anyway, surf brands are like pop stars - they have a short shelf life. Today's RVCA is tomorrow's Crystal Cylinders. I mean, what's the f... with Hollister? Isn't it connected to ultra wanker label Abercrombie and Fitch? What respectable Neville Nobody, surfer or not, is going to be seen dead in that stuff!

Paul Naude is Neil Diamond's long lost brother.

Good lord!!

Thanks Stickit.

@ zumabeach. Ah yes surf brands are like pop stars. Rip Curl, 1969? Quik, 1970? Billabong, 1973? What does that make them, the Rolling Stones or something?

Derek is well out of the Billabong mire IMO. And no, he did not have a lot to do with the current mess the company finds itself in. Clearly the various equity predators who are in play right now see the company's Board as weak and unable to control its shareholder slate. In fact the company's sales, while down, are still substantial, and the writedown of trademark assets that were such a big part of their recent sharemarket statement was the act of that rather spooked Board, trying to hang on to its deal with Altamont Capital Partners and scare off the wolves. In which attempt they are yet to succeed.

Personally I hope Derek and Paul have an act here, aside from the fact that both of them have done a great deal of quiet good behind the scenes over the years and thus cause me to be biased in their favour, the more competitors in the surf industry the better. Competition flushes out the kooks. In case you hadn't fucken noticed.

"And no, he did not have a lot to do with the current mess the company finds itself in"

Come off it. Derek was architect of the ill-fated retail expansion that lead to the current mess. To say otherwise is either wilful ignorance or selective blindness.

Don't buy these overpaid wankers products, and I you were ever a BBG shareholder (which I wasn't), you have every right, and my blessings, to want to punch them in the head.

They should be hung and quartered. Can't believe they even want to show their face.

Correct bum-parfum, these guys were behind the wheel when they wrote off $1.75 billion of market capital. (Same as the guys who OK'd Rossignol, another $2 billion smoked. collectively the best part of 4,000 million dollars, yep, four thousand million dollars, try and get your head around that figure. and poof!!, it is gone.)

Zuma..nah not Dereks Pr guy, just a good friend who knows the full story.....not the 1/2 arse version you have been fed in the media....

Nick right ....the current mess has nothing to do with Derek and just highlights the lack of cohesion at Board level...

as for sid the wombat...the stockmarket is gambling ,ya punt on stocks,ya win some ya lose some..as for punching them in the head,well fucken eh...that should get ya money back so you can pay for ya lawyer for smackin someone....ahh emotional BS...guilty as charged!!

may as get ya (former) money's worth Brutus. Dress it up anyway ya like mate, just another pair of CEOs/Execs who got overpaid when the ship went down. They should be broke and busted just like everyone else involved.

and what the fuck's wrong with wombats ? they're just vegetarian cruisers, compared to a pair of corporate snorters.

obviously I read a lot more of Dezzos' CEOs Shareholders Address... "billabong's retail expansion strategy remains intact, with fiscal traction expected next quarter"... than what you did.

Nothing to do with DO ??, give us a break. He personally delivered that crap every quarter.

zuma I liked your analogy and the mention of The Rolling Stones only strengthened it. So if Quiksilver are the Stones, then Rip Curl are probably Rod Stewart, I mean Claw even looks like him, but what about Billabong? Spinal Tap might seem well deserved but it would be too cruel, maybe Led Zeppelin, something in common there around over-reaching I think.

ps. ya's like sid's new exec. vehicle ?

Yeah not bad Sid, could cook some meth out of that thing.. Or at least sell ice creams.

I think Billabong is more like the Bee Gees.

But haven't exactly done a good job of Stayin' Alive.

Nice ride Sid, is it a Bedford?

so whats Patagonia....??
Metallica??

@ nick carroll ... Of course surf brands are like pop stars - and after their top 40 days are done they end up on the golden oldies circuit, wishing the glory days would somehow return, but they're left playing the same old songs over and over. These days Ocean Pacific is at least playing corporate gigs at the big end of town. It's owned by a U.S. clothing conglomerate, listed on the New York stock exchange, of course, and its advertising tells you what a hot place Miami is - now there's a real surf city for you. Piping Hot seems to be confined to the working men's club circuit - it's selling itself in Target. How cool is that! Lightning Bolt has some presence in the U.S. and Europe - but its gigs are few and far between, although Bolt, once the most venerated of surf brands, rates the occasional mention in Vogue magazine of all places. Golden Breed and Hang Ten seem to have some minor web presence ... but does anyone care?
No one wants any company to crash and innocent workers to lose jobs, but once a brand - I hate that word - is distracted from its core audience and function, especially by listing on the stock exchange, it's asking for trouble. I've just come back from Hawaii and Quiksilver is all over Macy's department stores, just the next counter over from the Ralph Lauren button down shirts for f.... sake.
Nick, I've no problem with you standing up for those who help feed you, but most of us on here - who seem to have been around surfing for more than a few years - want nothing but good serviceable products - surfboards, wetsuits and board shorts principally - and don't give a rat's about all the fluffy add ons. Meanwhile, we're shaking our heads at all the mismanagement, corporate greed and pocket lining that's taken place.

So Nick and Brutus, we are supposed to look past the obviously major shortcomings that Derek had as a CEO, because he was doing some quiet good work behind the scenes?

Try telling that to the investors who lost their money and the employees who lost their jobs, see how much that quiet good really matters in the grand scheme of things.

I do however join you in your hope that the future of Billabong is much brighter now that maybe they can try to concentrate on doing what they do well.

I also hope that the new brands entering the marketplace can offer something new and refreshing. Although as we all cry out for something new I feel there is something to keep in mind:

Either the new brands will have to extend their reach into the general public to be able to support the manufacture of the units that will be required to sustain the new company at the lower product margins that people are demanding. This will inevitably mean that the quality of the goods produced will be compromised in the process (think the Cotton On business model in Australia or American Apparel for the yankies). Fast fashion for the surf world.

or

The new brands are focussed on quality and technical innovation and this allows them to justify the high margins that we are used to paying.

It's easy to see that there is some frustration with the current state of the market and the prices that we pay, and the new companies and existing companies alike are going to have to work a lot harder for our cash than they did in the 90's but I feel we are coming to a fork in the road.

In the surf world we are going to have decide whether or not we want good quality products that will last or if we want cheaper products that look good when we buy them but don't last.

I know what I'd choose....

guys ya missin the point here..BBG like Q/S is a public Company ...with a majority of the board of directors that do not surf,which means they are in it only for the buck.

Any and all Public company's have one prime objective...to make money for the sharehlders.....so there must be constant sales growth to increase profits at any cost.

this leads to moving away from the core market of surfers ,which in turn over a period of time alienates the core surfers...which we are seeing now.

Gen Y has not and does not want to wear or buy the old brands who have become Public Co's....or who have sought growth in every market ,especially the mid west over here in the USA.

Is a public Co a surf Co...what is a Surf Company??

Patagonia is by far the most successful Co......that I know of...with strong morals and a company creed second to none...and it all comes from one man!

After speaking to Paul and knowing Derek...there is an incredible opportunity here for a couple of wise heads to create a rael Surf Co...

guys is there any current surf brand that you think you would be proud to let your kids work for as a career choice??

A career in the rag trade? Well if they failed in other vocations then a job at Patagucci would be acceptable.

what I find interesting in the wash up of current biz state of affairs, is the fact that the founders of these Co.s cop heaps of shit for being the "fat cats", yet it was the next gen of Execs., who effectively got handed the custodianship of Licenses to print money, simply kooked, and kooked so badly on an international and industrial scale.

this "it wasn't their fault, blame the board of D's"... what a load of horseshit. Gimme the old boys any day, they created, these sorta fuckwits destroyed.

Compared to the founders, they are creative and mental pygmies.

and that photo, I want to vomit.

Can we do a caption comp ? I'll kick off...

"We're smiling, you would be too if just snorted a good whack of some Mum&Dads SMSF. We're cool, still cool, toot toot... next."

I'm confused; Naude and his altruistic millionaire buddies are launching a new company to create quality and innovative "core" surf products to compete in the same industry as companies who hire "core" businessmen that understand how to appropriate culture and drive sales like Hollister?

I've never seen a Hollister product or store, but shouldn't Naude's fat cats get over their 30 year stale bread marketing campaign preaching "authenticity" and admit they just want to use the surf image to sell consumer products that go through standard fashion cycles?

"Core" would be creating a line of wetsuits with the same durability of a 80's suit, combined with the technologies of 2013. Xcel died in 2007 when acquired by Billabong, Rip Curl and West are hit and miss(mostly), Matuse is as fragile as a silk shirt, Patagonia still wore out at the same pace as a entry level Quik suit, Hotline's quality has declined immensely and my latest experiment is a Buell - feels like it's not gonna last more than 2 years.

"Core" surfers don't require a branded tshirt to validate their passion. "Core" surf companies are shapers lacking free time to cavort around pitching growth strategy to vulture capitalists as they're far too busy shaping blindboy's summer mal quiver.

Good luck to the Blues Bro's as they put their Doug Spong tribute band back on the road, but please let's not delude ourselves about the culpability of CEOs in the malaise of the surf industry. If Derek wasn't the architect of the retail expansion program (and I've written elsewhere that I don't believe he was) then he certainly drank the Cool-Aid, and happily accepted the plaudits for it at the beginning. At board meetings proceedings are often dictated by the most powerful person in the room, and in the case of Billabong, that was neither the chairman nor the CEO.
When you look at the near demise of the Australian'founded public surfcos, this is where the Billabong disaster differs from the Quiksilver one. At Quiksilver the CEO drove the board into the Rossignol acquisition and the board did not have the guts to point out that the emperor was wearing no clothes. At BBG, the CEO was driven by members of the board. When the shit hit the fan, both those CEOs were held accountable, which comes with a seven figure salary, and were pushed out the window into a platinum safety net. The common or garden variety investors and the sacked low end workers are the only ones that got burnt.
So let's not get too sentimental about sacked CEOs and just wish the boys well as they head down Cult Highway.

Nice analysis of the proximate causes of the corporate failures Phil. The ultimate cause? Allowing marketing and finance to become more important than the product. The disease of our age I think.

Not a fair comparison at all Phil, Cult was funded from an era of privately owned success, these guys are being funded by an era of public failure.

Thin Air, a roaring success, contributed hugely to 'Bong making it to the next level at that time, in a postion to go public, and was renumerated accordingly. That was then.

This is now. Who presented the retail expansion "opportunites" to the BBG board as "do-able", and was charged with the implementation to make the strategy work ? An epic failure, on, as you say, 7 figure salaries AND then platinum parachutes.

ah did...so you think the founders were the creative ones and the CEO's/Boards just weren't up to it??

huh...the founders were the ones that sold their share of the Co,made millions out doing so and then listed publicly...yeah the founders....were the one who cleaned up and have made hundreds of millions..not just a couple of million........

so not sure where ya omin from with dumb statements about creativity and the founders had nothing to do with the Co's becoming public..they made obscene fortunes,from going public...duh!

As for even thinking that this new venture is like Cult just shows pure ignorance and a lack of understanding of what drove spongy,and what drives Derek and paul....

maybe I'm just too close and know a little too much inside info and know the guys personally....so yeah I am biased but based on fact,not media headlines

the ol ugly Tall poppy syndrome kicks in........let em have a go and lets judge what them on their actions ,not some 1/2 wacked recycled media garbage....that Sid keeps recycling..

yep, the founders made 100's of millions, and sold the License to print money which the next gen FUBAR'd . The also mortgaged their homes multiple times and repeatedly put their balls on the line, unlike eg: this pair.

By taking the Co's public they also made many others multi-millionaires, which had a trickle down effect, some of which even indirectly came your way Brutus, without naming names.

Both BBG & ZQK floated at around 3 bucks and went to circa $15, during which the bulk of the cream was made available to the general investing public, whilst the founders got the 3 bucks. Thats before the shit hit the fan, courtesy in large part to the likes of the above forementioned's incompetentcies. Suck on those facts.

This new venture is NOTHING like Cult. Spongy had his success with Thin Air, then he had his failure with Cult. Difference is Spongy took his own licks, and went on to live a simpler life, whilst guys like this got plantinum coated and everyone else sucked balls.

Derek and Paul ha, someone like Greeny is completely in another league, he'd leave them standing on their head, on any commercial venture in any era. That's why he's still got his plus some whilst these sorta guys are on the scrap heap.

Seriously Brutus, you are fucking tripping, who's CV reads better?, the founder of Quik, or the resigned/stood down CEO of BBG circa 2011-12 .

CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer, and the buck stops there.

Sid,ya don't have a clue.....is Gordom Merchant a founder of BBG and still on the board??

Did Gordon Merchant take the Co public and at one time was worth more than $700 million in BBG stock alone?

Is Gordon Merchant still trying to get the rest of the board sacked,and get back BBG ??

Did the founding members make fortunes out of going public and retained large portions of stock?

Did the founding members make huge mistakes and have to Mortgage their houses to survive?

Was Derek as CEO sacked with the stock at $268..which was the value that the stockmarket put on BBG at the time??

was Laura Inman CEO when the stock hit 12c?

Did Spongy loose everything he made at Thin Air and blew it with Cult?

Is spongy scratching today?

I didn't make a cent out of any Surf stock?

get real sid...a liitle knowledge is dangerous...you have proved this in spades...as the answer to all the above is a resounding YES......and that's the FACTs not your headline media dribble about Derek and Paul being some kind of pariahs...this is your twited version of events...

ah yeahh......

yep, cos the above didn't do their jobs. properly.

oh Sidney,what was "proper" in your opinion?

Billabong started off making boardies for surfers to flogging everything they could wack a bong label on.
They had their day in the sun, some made a fortune, some lost theirs, same as it ever was. What about the Bob Marley line of merch WTF? Maybe they can go the Roxy route and start sexploiting their team riders, get Parko accidently dropping his $80 bong towel to reveal his "since 1979" tattoo.

Properly IMO. Well, lets start with some basic stuff for starters.

Such as standardised logistic and accounting frameworks and stock control/rotation, rather than having some 600 odd retail outlets trading like a herd of cats.

This biz wasn't even operating in last decade best practice, let alone this decade best practice, under the the leadership of DO. Poorly performing assets all over the globe, despite the "billabong's retail expansion strategy remains intact, with fiscal traction expected next quarter" assurances from Dezzo. The market spotted it before they did, and the market smelt blood. The problems were in train, but yet to be fully realised, long before Laura Inman arrived.

DO was shelved @ 2.68 because his position had become untenable considering what was coming down the line. The market had valued the biz at that price at that time because all the turds were yet to fully surface in the true light of day.

Soon enough they kept coming, Debt kept rising and the slide gained momentum. Even at the time of the Nixon sale, they weren't telling it straight, and probably thought they could spin their way thru. DO delivered and signed off on it all, every quarter. It wasn't bad, it was much worse.

I repeat, CEO stands for Chief Executive Officer, and the buck stops there. Do you reckon this CV would get a CEO/Exec. gig at any other ASX300 company ? No chance.

Did GM & R take the Co. public and make a lot of dough? Yes, that was the general idea.

Is he still on the board and trying to regian control ? Yes and why wouldn't he? Naudie was trying to do the same himself up to a few weeks ago.

Did founders have to mortgage their homes to survive? Most likely.

Did Spongy make heaps from Thin Air and lose it on Cult? Quite possibly but I'd like to think not. Either way, as I said, both were private companies and he took his own licks, rather than stockmarket investors taking a bath whilst $2.5 mil golden handshakes got handed out as reward for failure.

Finally, you gunna shit there with a straight face and tell me none of your, ahem, business ventures over the years have been supported or partnered, in part of full, by funding gleaned at some point from the success of either RIP, BBG, ZQK or OAKLEY? Gimme a break, I know many of them .

But hey, toot toot, next...

Advantage Sid. Serving for the match.

Sid we are just wasting our time here I reckon.

It's pretty clear that all brutus wants us to know is that he has an extra special personal relationship with Dez and Paul.

I think all that is left to do is slow clap Brutus out of the room because while he may personally know the men in question he clearly struggles with the basics of business structure and accountability.

ah sid and red hero,sounds like ya both lost money or maybe ya didn't like the fact that when you fire someone corporate rules dictate a payout...ah like if you get fired from your job you are entitled to get a payout....

so your jealousy in Derek getting such a relatively big payout oozes thru both of your vindictive howlings/whingeing......

As for the failed buying of all the retail stores....at the time all other brands were sacred as BBG was about to dominate the retail scene,and the other surf brands lost considerable rack space,and in turn sales....

timing was bad...but I am not sure if you know that not many retailers saw the swing to online sales....ah ask DJ's Myers how are they doing 6 years later?

and spongy punted on Cult lost it all.....currently no founders have had to mortgage their homes......ah do you understand what a public Co is?

As for your venom directed at Derek..did you know he took Billabong Europe fro a $1 m to over $300m in 10 years......he sure made a lot more money for BBG than he was paid....do ya home work ya moron!

as for me....ya ficken tripping ..I have always been independent,and have never receieved ANY financial support or partnering from any of the brands you mentioned.....once again you just make up shit to support your pathetic opinions....

so yeah Derek got paid out...normal business practices when you sack someone...get over it...

as for redherro......so you think that normal business practices say if you lose money and get sacked ya don't get a pay out??

Read Nick Carols post again.....the current debacle at BBG had nothing to do with Derek!

---I have always been independent,and have never receieved ANY financial support or partnering from any blah blah blah---

Pass me another vomit bucket. For the privacy of the individuals involved, we won't go thru the list, will we ? Currently its Patagucci, ay ?

DO took Euro from zip to whatever, that was his job, those days were easy, I'm sure he was paid handsomely. But in the big time, in tough times, under his stewardship as CEO, he was out of his depth, the Co. ate shit as did retail investors. I never lost a cent, but can appreciate why some folk would be pissed off at the renumeration recieved for such monumental wealth destruction. Obviously, you can't recognise this, evident in your blinkered denial of poor performance and celebration of ressurection in the same field.

OR, are you eyeing off your next gig... Is there a Brutus alliance in the scope with these born-again core brothers, for essential "coreness" services that only you could provide ?

hmmm, time will tell .

WTF Sid are you bullshitting on about.....I have a deal to manufacture bds for Patagonia...but seems your tiny brain doesn't understand that Patagoinia is a customer and Patagucci...oh you seem to have a problem with Patagonia.....to cool ,or too environmentally conscious..

you seem to have serious mental problems with me....there is enough real fact on these pages here to show you DO was not the sole architect of BBG;s current woes and that he was paid out according to the rules of business....Duhhhh

and now you are suggesting I have some ulterior motive to set your feeble delusions straight.....wow maybe I will be CEO of...??

I design/shape/surf/design/shape/surf.......like I always have and will.....try having a good hard look at yourself and your wishy washy asertions......

---the current debacle at BBG had nothing to do with Derek!---

---DO was not the sole architect of BBG;s current woes---

Make up your mind Brutus, he WAS one of the architects, he was CEO. BBG reported a net Loss of $859 million for FY12-13, that's how many turds were yet to surface, that's how bad the state of affairs were left from that reign.

Operations were in complete disarray, it's taken a 12 month autopsy to be able to come clean & to report on the level. That's why TO bids started at 3.30 and kept dropping. Once suitors got access to the data room, they ran like hell.

wishy washy assertions, ha ha, I'm sure there's plenty of people who know exactly where I'm coming from.

the current debacale at BBG is falling sales,who is really going to run and relaunch BBG the brand.....as NC said ,its a mess nothing to do with DO,

as for your assertions that their was an illegal criminal coverup going on in BBG.....wheres ya proof?

BBG are a public Co and their balance sheets are open to audit...does your incredible insight into BBG know something else that all the board of directors are not aware of...wow maybe you should print what you know or contact them.....

all my life I have dealt with wannabes like you....and you think you have something on me.......to do with me accepting money or partnerships with brands that has helped my business or me personally..

go ahead and make your delusions public and see if I can answer or maybe sue your arse off.....if ya can't back it up...shut the fuck up!

I'd say there was plenty the BoDs didn't know about, evident in the Net Loss reporting and write downs since.

Certainly wasn't indicated in DOs CEO communicae' with shareholders, which was his job as custodian, that's why CEOs get the big bucks. (Chairman of the Board etc, is generally hands off, and may deliver eg: Chairman's Address once a year.)

Instead, the usual, "soft trading conditions remain challenging", “pressured by macroeconomic conditions.”, “uncertainty among our core customers’ confidence in the economic climate.”,
“A difficult second half” and my favourite " "billabong's retail expansion strategy remains intact, with fiscal traction expected next quarter". It's cool, we're cool, I'm cool, the coolaids over there.

I never suggested you had deals with big brands directly, you wrote that in due to your poor reading comprehension, but there is a conga line of past partners with little to show for their benevolence.

Wasnt it the CEO of Rip Curl who said it best when commenting upon the retail expansion:

Great strategy, bad timing....

I can't remember who exactly, but around the time BBG was still in the $3 - $4 range, someone here on SN said "Inventory.! they've got too much stock, it will out date, and out season, and they'll have to slash and burn, a lot."

I think it might have been whaaaat. Anyway, they were spot on.

Too much inventory, too many stores. They had to reduce the number of stores, which exaserpated the excess stock moreso. So it all got sold at a massive loss during the slash and burn. Margins eroded. Which in turn didn't support the fixed overheads and certainly didn't support the massive debts.

Stocktakes and Audits conducted at RRP, mean nothing when it has to get flogged at 70% - 80% discount.

The death spiral was set in motion, muchly from very basic stuff. Stock control, supply logistics, accounting templates... basic retail management.

The BBG retail strategy also burnt a lot of the independent retailers around Aus too, in turn hurting their wholesale operations.

Imagine you are the owner of a local surf shop and BBG buys up all of the Rush/SDS/Jetty locations near you and then fills said store with 75% BBG group product to maximise their extended margin sell through.

You aren't going to touch anything from the BBG group next range. Why would you? The BBG owned shop down the road has it in every colourway already. Add the frantic discounting that BBG undertook into the mix and you have a pretty toxic retail environment.

Local shops that relied on BBG for years turned their back on them in favour of the other brands that weren't pushing into the retail space so aggressively.

I mean, I'm sure that this backlash was expected from the independent surf accounts when BBG started the retail expansion. They must have just chalked it down to collateral damage. That damage came at high price looking at it with the benefit of hindsight.

Hopefully BBG can woo these customers back, because BBG being stocked pretty much only in their own retail spaces at the moment certainly isn't helping their crusade to return to the 'core' that everyone seems to be craving.

Sid.."conga line of past partners that have little to show for their benevolence?

WTF does that mean?

you really seem to have some twisted version of history in your mind that oozes out on these forums,trying to personally attack people from the industry with just unsubstantiated garbage....

either put up or shut up.....there is no conga line,there has been no benevolence.......absolute rubbish....you are simply a liar!

yeah sure Brutus, never happened. I know no one and nothing.

Your problem is you come on these forums treating people like they ain't been around, know nothing, and no one, and only you can call it true. Stupid comments like "do you know what a public company is" and "you don't know anything about the stock market with that tiny brain."

just happens I spend about 30 hours a week trading / day trading penny dreadfuls, spec. and junior miners. I breathe that stuff, I love it. Trust me, when it comes to BS from CEOs, I've prolly read and heard it all. Never owned BBG, but read pretty much every one of their notices, out of curiousity, including all the stuff from DO over the years.

So don't take people for uninformed fools, don't refer me to NC, a surf journo. Unless you wanna roll with margin loans, stop losses, debt covenants, lines of credit, syndicated debt, senior notes, junk bonds, short selling, contracts for difference, currency swaps, currency hedges, derivatives, FOREX, ETFs, TBonds, TIPS, TED Spreads, LIBOR, god knows what else. You mentally in that league ?

...and especially in this instance, Fiduciary Duty‎ of a CEO.

Anyway, you still gunna sue ? Big Bad Brutus, aka Captain Character Assasination, him and his mates cop a bit of of flak on the social media interweb, and Bru wants to bring in the wigs. Weren't you the bloke who went on a global social media rampage trashing a young blokes career not long ago ? Wasn't that you ?

yeah mate, go ahead 'n sue. Who's gunna be ya counsel ? I'll bring Uncle James, you may have heard of him as Justice Wood, pretty small time, just an AO and a couple of Royal Commissions under his belt.

Now YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP. Get a room with the other innocents and rent Sarge for the nite. Fucken Con Man. And don't try fool me.

Huy stu..down to the last couple of clean Tees...yeah bit bright.....

as for Sid...ahh ...now I/m a con man...you poor deluded creature..you are the one who makes character assasination a past time ...and now ya name drop ......oohhhhh you so scary....

I have a lot more inside info than you because this is what I do/am,surf industry is and alsways will be my life...you admit you are a day trader...wonderful....

I am privy to a lot that goes on.....and that's what I base my opinions on.....what are your opinions based on.....hearsay and innuendo...media headlines ...I come on here to give a bit of clarity to your half baked opinions and then ya get personal...

enough already....hey had a pretty good day today....got test results back and am cancer free for the 1st time in 10 years plus....maybe that's why I have been a bit firey for the last week or so...seems our debate is an insignificant minor detail in life right now.....so what the fuck...live life...while ya can......

Yeah like wise Brutus, must be a big load of the mind.
Good on you.

Your opinion may be somewhat clouded because of your association with your friend. Therefore you are getting one side of the story, that being your friends side and opinion Brutus. There are always two sides or more, and just because you are getting it from that side, it doesn't make it right.

BTW, congrats on beating the beast Brutus.

thanx guys....just had a revelation.....I don't need all the personal rumor and inuendo.....

In my own mind I try and give a different insight from the inside...decided its a waste of time.....

So guys I'll leave you all in peace from now on.....over and out....

Congrat's Brutus, all else is irrelevant after news like that. Personally i like hearing your insights as you are the only one working in the board biz that i am aware of.
PS: remember buying a board off you at the WaterCooled shop around '79. You told a story about you and Wayne Lynch falling asleep and running off the road on the way back from Joanna.

Sometimes nothing is all that needs to said. Well done Sid.