The contrasting fortunes between Quiksilver’s regions are on display this week.
While Quiksilver is closing stores in its unprofitable Americas division during the bankruptcy process, it is opening an eye-catching Boardriders store in its birthplace in Torquay, Australia.
The company held a big party in Torquay Friday night to celebrate the grand opening of the expanded store, which is nearly 11,000 square feet and includes a rooftop bar and café, a barbershop, weekly yoga classes, live music some nights, 400 surfboards and 200 skateboards.
The Boardriders concept includes the Quiksilver, Roxy and DC brands and was developed several years ago by current CEO Pierre Agnes in Europe. SES saw several Boardriders stores while in France, and with the restaurant and bar and events, the stores are definitely experiential and have an excitement level that goes beyond a typical retail shop.
The company has 16 Boardriders stores in countries such as France, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Australia and Indonesia.
In Torquay, the company previously had three separate stores for Quiksilver, Roxy and DC that weren’t connected. They were able to work out a deal with the landlord next door and took over the space next to the old Quiksilver store to create the new Boardriders location.
This is the second Boardriders store in Australia. The first is located in Coolangatta.
Todd Liddy, Quiksilver’s Sales Director in Australia, told us that the Coolangatta store has done well, and they’ve made some tweaks to the Torquay store based on what they learned in Coolangatta, including upgrading the kitchen to support an expanded menu.
“The food and coffee offering in Torquay is of a high standard and very cosmopolitan, so it was really important to us to ensure we created a menu which talks to our local customer,” Todd said.
Given that the store is opening so soon after Quiksilver filed for bankruptcy in the U.S., SES had to ask the question that I am sure a lot of readers are wondering about.
Why is an unprofitable company that just filed for bankruptcy opening such an expensive store?
Quiksilver President Greg Healy answered for us.
“As we stated last week, the APAC and European businesses were not part of the filing, and continue to be profitable regions for us. We made the decision and commitment to this store some time ago. We really believe in the vision of the Boardriders concept and are delighted that it has come to life in the birthplace of Quiksilver.”
See photos of the store above in our slide show.
