Orange County is emerging as an increasingly important part of Billabong International Ltd.’s operations as the action-sports apparel maker and retailer begins to find some footing on a turnaround.
Irvine has long been a significant center for the Australia-based brand, serving as home of its Billabong USA unit, which includes its entire Americas division.
Plans to grow the Costa Mesa-based RVCA brand and Element—both in the Billabong portfolio—add local weight. So does the recent completion in restructuring of the parent company’s executive ranks.
The company has said that it will keep its headquarters in Australia, but it also recognizes the importance of its operations here.
“As North America is the company’s largest market, [Chief Executive] Neil [Fiske] has upped the executive bench strength, so there will be more of the leadership working out [of] Irvine, Element and RVCA’s offices than previously,” said Billabong International spokesperson Chris Fogarty.
Executives
Five of the 10 executives making up the leadership team that reports directly to Fiske are now based in OC, and another is on the way.
They include:
• Shannan North, the Irvine-based global head of the Billabong brand;
• Bill Bettencourt, global general manager of RVCA in Costa Mesa;
• Frank Voit, global general manger of Element, who is set to relocate from Europe to Costa Mesa in mid-2015;
• Ed Leasure, president of Billabong Americas in Irvine;
• Jeff Streader, global chief operating officer in Irvine;
• Mara Pagotto, chief human resources officer in Irvine
The remaining four are in Australia and Europe.
The Orange County operations already are larger than the company’s Australia headquarters, with about 550 people working here, most of them at the main office on Waterworks Way.
The Australia office has about 400 workers.
Geography has little to do with where the company has its headquarters.
“Neil has stressed that the executive brand, and operational roles in particular, are globally focused rather than people sitting in one office, in one part of the world, just focused on what’s happening there,” Fogarty said.
Fiske and Leasure were unavailable to comment for this article.
Bettencourt
The leadership team reporting to Fiske was completed earlier this month with the appointment of Bettencourt, a former executive at Sperry Top-Sider, to global general manager for Billabong International’s RVCA apparel brand. Bettencourt is expected to work alongside RVCA founder Pat Tenore to grow the brand globally.
Bettencourt is expected to be based out of RVCA’s Costa Mesa office, but will also work in Irvine at times.
His appointment came only a day after the company said it named Streader its global chief operating officer.
The inner circle of executives are a critical part of Billabong’s plan to right the business after several years of tumult that included the departure of two chief executives in the span of roughly a year that was followed by Fiske’s appointment in September.
The company sold several brands in recent years as it trimmed debt and considered multiple purchase offers for its entire operations, including one from a group that included former Americas President Paul Naudé.
Naudé’s previous position was filled permanently in January by Leasure, the founder of Quiet Flight Surfboards, which Billabong International bought in 2008.
All of those ripples were set against a tough business environment for the company, which saw lackluster sales.
The company, which reports financial results every six months, marked a fourth consecutive half-year loss for the six months through Dec. 31, 2013, of $113.7 million. That was narrowed from the $483.2 million loss a year ago.
Billabong International revenue for the same six-month period fell 3.4 percent to $519.4 million.
Fiske acknowledged “this is a complex, difficult turnaround, and the reforms we are putting in place will take some time to flow through to our bottom line.”
The steps taken by Fiske to reshape the executive team are part of efforts to take a global approach to operations. The goal, according to the company, is to create a strong backbone to support other tactics of the turnaround.
