Australian online surfwear retailer, SurfStitch, has bought back Billabong’s 51 per cent shareholdings in its Australian and European operations, along with 100 per cent of Billabong’s other online retail platform, Swell.com.
The purchase was made by a consortium made up of SurfStitch founders, Justin Cameron and Lex Pederson, which paid $35 million for both online businesses.
Billabong is working to cut excess baggage by disposing of weaker retailers and labels, and focusing on its core brands.
It has already sold off ski and snowboard accessory label, DaKine, and Canadian retailer, West 49, and had flagged its intention to sell SurfStitch and Swell, and will continue to supply products to both SurfStitch and Swell.
The consolidated SurfStitch Group has turnover exceeding $100 million.
“Over the past six months our teams have been working extremely hard to further the globalisation of our business,” Cameron said of SurfStitch’s plans.
“SurfStitch is the leading online action sports store in Asia, the leading pureplay in North America and a top three player in Europe.
“Combined we are the global leader in online action sports and youth apparel. As we progress into 2015 our aim is to further leverage our global infrastructure to cement our market leading positions.”
As part of the organisational restructuring, a number of new local and offshore institutional investors have joined the business.
“We are pleased to welcome new shareholders into the SurfStitch Group and are excited about the support our company has received from high quality institutional investors. We look forward to them participating in the continued growth plans we have for the business,” said Cameron.