Dallas, Texas 04/15/2014 (FINANCIALSTRENDS) – Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK) has lost out to luxury apparel and accessory maker Kering in its efforts to retain its two decade long endorsement and sponsorship relationship with Kelly Slater, who is a house hold name in the U.S as the winner of the prestigious Association of Surfing Professionals championship on 11 occasions. The news was let out by the champion surfer himself earlier this month through a social media platform.
Mr Slater has ended his 24 year long endorsement with the Huntington Beach based cloths and branded accessories firm, to enter into exclusive relationship with Paris headquarter Kering, which owns world renowned lifestyle and accessories brands like Gucci and Saint Laurent. The Paris based firm will help the 42 year old sur$fboard champion (who also has a huge fan following among the popular TV serial Baywatch thanks to his leading role in it) in designing, manufacturing, marketing and selling his own line of sportswear going forward.
The above development, comes in the back of Quiksilver, Inc. (NYSE:ZQK) executing a series of cost cutting and consolidation measures in order to increase the profits that it can share with its shareholders. Laying out the progress made so far, the company’s President, Chief Executive Officer and Director Andrew P. Mooney explained during the recent 1Q14 earnings call that “We continued to execute our Profit Improvement Plan over the last few months. During the first quarter, we further reduced our expense structure and made progress on optimizing our supply chain and laying the foundation for stabilizing and expanding revenues. EBITDA improved versus the prior year quarter, continuing the progress made in the final two quarters of last year,” added Mooney.
The CEO went on to add that they have been able to report improvements in the bottom line, thanks to some of their past few quarters efforts in reducing expenses have started to yield results. These measures include, reducing its sales and admin expenses, while at the same time managing to boost sales in new emerging markets.
