Billabong Ready to Open New Stores

After closing 215 stores and streamlining its supplier base, surfwear brand Billabong International Ltd. (Gold Coast, Australia) has announced its plans to start opening new outlets again as it tries to boost profits. The company lost 99 percent of its market value after taking on debt to build a store network, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

Billabong is ready to open new stores “right now,” ceo Neil Fiske said. The company closed or sold about 34 percent of its locations over the past three years as it slashed debt by 333 million, reports Bloomberg.

Billabong’s store numbers peaked at 639 in June 2011, according to a presentation in 2012. There are now 424 units in Australia, the U.S. and Europe.

“Stores are key to a brand’s health over time,” Fiske said in an interview in Sydney. “The thing you can do in a store that you can’t really do on the Web is connect directly to that customer. You can make it come to life.”