Here is an excerpt from an
article in the Salt Lake Tribune entitled
Park City based ski company up for sale:
Jim Hunter, vice president
of operations and chief financial officer for Rossignol North America,
said that while new owners can do whatever they want with the company,
he would not expect to see major changes soon in its day-to-day
operations.
"The brand's been around for a long time [more than 100 years
now] and we're not going anywhere," he said Friday, expressing
confidence in the job security of nearly 100 employees at the "Mountain
Center" headquarters in Kimball Junction and a distribution center in
Ogden....
He said several companies
have shown interest in acquiring Rossignol and its sister companies -
Dynastar, Lange, Gnu, Lib Technology and Roxy. "The list has been
narrowed down to a few of the most serious people," Hunter added.
Quiksilver, which made its name selling surfing goods,
purchased Rossignol in March of 2005 for a reported $320 million. But
then the next two winters were particularly tough ones, with limited
snow, especially in Europe during 2006-07
Hunter said Rossignol North America saw its business rebound during this past winter of plentiful snow.
"We had a good season here in North America, both in the
Eastern and Western U.S.," he said. "The brands are doing very well in
terms of the marketplace."
- No major changes in operations
- Rossignol is not dead
- They area basing their decision on two winters, despite the good season this year
______________
An article from
Forbes says:
Quiksilver 2Q net loss widens on Rossignol-related impairment charge:
For the quarter ended April
30, the company recorded a loss of $206.2 million, or $1.59 per share,
compared with a loss of $4.8 million, or 4 cents per share in the
prior-year quarter.
- QS is furthering their losses and injuring themselves and Rossignol's brand with the sale
_______________
Excerpt from Quicksilver's
Annual Report in 2007:
...the weather conditions significantly impacted our equipment business, which affected our
overall financial performance. Throughout the course of last year, we worked hard to improve the efficiencies in these businesses. We were successful in eliminating redundancy and in consolidating our distribution structure for the Rossignol group of businesses. That work, however, went unrewarded because of market conditions.
You likely know that last winter was one of the warmest on record and the lack of snowfall in Europe and in parts of the United States was unprecedented. This affected every supplier and retailer in the wintersports market. It was perhaps the worst season the industry had ever seen. Across the industry, sales of equipment declined more than twenty percent while we saw an equipment brand sales decline of over $100 million versus the prior year.
We continue to regard the Rossignol brand as both one of the world’s most admired and yet least developed outdoor brands. We continue to believe that, despite the short-term issues associated with last year’s ski season, there is a very large and compelling opportunity to transform Rossignol into a powerhouse lifestyle brand with products in a wide range of outdoor sports, apparel
and footwear categories, just as we have successfully done in adding new product categories to Quiksilver, Roxy and DC. Still, we certainly recognize that although longer-term opportunities exist, we have a clear need to reduce the risks associated with our equipment businesses. To that end, we will pursue strategic alternatives with respect to these businesses.
Sincerely,
Robert B. McKnight, Jr.
Chairman of the Board
- Winter sports consitute 14% of quicksilver's sales
- Apparel, shoes, accessories account for 86% of sales
- QS is getting out of winter sports equipment and focusing on apparel
- By buying Rossi and selling them so quickly, they have hurt themselves and Rossignol
I still think that even though QS had helped Rossignol, ultimately they shouldn't have been the people that bought them. QS should have been committed to the brand and their decision to leave skiing is something that we shouldn't support IMO. It's a shame Rossi is having hard times but be sure to support them in the future because this next year the goods are sick and they need our support in the future.
