Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. plans to redesign about half of its stores as part of an ambitious plan to grow sales.
The action-sports apparel and retail company, which had nearly $2 billion in sales last year, unveiled redesigned Quiksilver stores in Vail, Colo., and Park City, Utah, late last month as part of a larger plan to add $1 billion in revenue by 2016.
Quiksilver makes clothes, shoes and accessories under its core three brands—Quiksilver, Roxy and DC Shoes—as well as others.
The new look—a mix of log cabin and high-end boutique—puts a greater emphasis on the company’s snow- and technical-apparel offerings.
“We have a dedicated team that’s been working on launching our mountain product over the last 12 months and revitalizing our winter sports program across all three brands,” Quiksilver Americas President Rob Colby said. “We’ve always been in the business and have a real renewed focus on it and thought the retail environments should show that focus.”
The store design used in Park City and Vail will eventually carry over to its 30 or so other stores focused on cold-weather merchandise, Colby said.
Some of those mountain concept redesigns are included in what the company is calling a retail overhaul with 40 redesigned stores planned over the next two years for the Quiksilver and Roxy brands.
“We wanted the handwriting of these stores to speak to a winter environment, where we can showcase our cold weather products to include apparel and hard goods,” said Paul McAdam, senior vice president and general manager of Quiksilver retail.
The company’s mountain concept stores follow new looks for its Quiksilver Women’s stores, which saw openings earlier this year of a flagship location at the Malibu Lumber Yard and, more recently, Fashion Island in Newport Beach.
Heritage, History
It’s a chance to “speak to our heritage and history in a compelling and contemporary manner,” McAdam said of the new store designs.
“The stores’ look will be more distinctive, premium and aspirational,” McAdam said. “The changes are necessary, because we believe our vertical retail stores should be the pinnacle proposition of how we showcase our brands.”
The retail strategy involves a multi-pronged plan to help reach the $3 billion mark in annual sales.
Quiksilver is counting on its Americas division as a key to its retail revamp. The division includes 82 company-owned stores in the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
The rest of the company’s business is divided between its Europe and Asia/Pacific operations.
The company also recently consolidated its sales management for its three biggest brands in the Americas.
Mills
John Mills is now senior vice president of sales for the entire Americas region and reports to Colby.
Mills’ prior position has been filled by Taylor Whisenand, formerly senior vice president of marketing operations, who is now senior vice president of sales for the Quiksilver brand for the Americas division.
“I needed to create some uniformity in the way that we plan and execute,” Colby said of the moves in the Americas division.
