Market news : France ( Landes / Pays Basque ) , Surf industry is on the bottom of the wave

Major brands in the southern region facing headwinds, but the strengths of the Southwest remain.

Industry aquitaine slips, which weighs today 1.7 billion in revenue, saw the end of a cycle of thirty years, who climbed up on the beaches of the Wall Street. This is reflected in particular by the advent of a culture more than surfing business in its companies and the arrival of a new generation of leaders. Sometimes these changes are unceremoniously as Oxbow comes to fire its CEO Baptiste Caulonque. Or in Quisksilver who prayed Craig Stevenson, number three, to pack in mid-February in Huntington Beach (California), the world headquarters of the group.
 
At Billabong, ogled by an investment fund and the giant VF Corporation (Vans, The North Face, Timberland), the founder and principal shareholder Gordon Merchant had no pity for Derek O'Neill, who was boss firm in Europe, before becoming executive chairman. Accomplished surfer, recognized leader of men, he was replaced by Laura Inman, after ruling Target, big supermarket chain in the USA. Rip Curl, changes are family. Olivier Cantet goes hand and the CEO and co-founder, Frederick Low, will take a step back.
 
Hecatomb
 
In recent years, the sector has experienced more setbacks than successes. We have seen and fall in battle some brands like Mada, Split, Ambigous, Rusty, Gotcha. Born in Britain, but a time sponsor of Lacanau Pro, Kana Beach has been put into liquidation. Despite its acquisition by PPR, Volcom did not take off. As the Australian Rip Curl, one of four major industry, its sales in Europe fell from 110 million in 2008 to 70 million last year.
 
The surf industry can not escape the experts "retail" (detail), e-commerce and sees land managers who worked at Nike, Adidas, Levi's, who never took a wave of their lives.
 
Times are changing. When in 2004, put his hand on Quiksilver Rossignol sold since with losses, surfwear firms aspired to be placed on many other worlds. Wave and the mountains were not enough to "golden boys" of skiing. Today, time is a drastic reorganization. And the case is perhaps much less finished the textile is no longer pump dollars once. The fault of the crisis, particularly virulent on large markets of the Atlantic seaboard, from Portugal to Britain. And consumers, fickle, moving towards more urban worlds (skate wear, street wear), booming.
 
Back to basics?
 
Another phenomenon brands such as H & M, trademarks or created from scratch, as the group Hollister Abercrombie & Fitch, is making a killing with their own lines of surf wear. With considerable resources, they pump imagery and references in the world of surfing, without spending one penny in competitions and Kelly Slater-type stars.
 
In this context, some advocate a return to the sources. "Sales of boardshorts, wetsuits, swimwear for women, progress," says Frédéric and Basse, president of Eurosima, industrial federation of sports. Recent successes, such as the Go Pro, with its mini-board cameras originally invented for surfers by surfers, show that there is hope. Notox, snowboard manufacturer of high environmental quality, and FCS producers drifts still register double-digit growth.
 
Responsible for the area in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Bayonne (CCI), François-Applagnat Tortet, note that the region has lost some appeal in relation to the year 2000: foreign firms locate more often in Europe North. But the Basque Country and the south of the Landes retain key strengths: first, the living, with the proximity of the waves and peaks of the Pyrenees, on the other hand, a tremendous reservoir of skills. "It was a unique gathering of knowledge, a pool of designers, commercial marketing experts. It should bounce back and capitalize on it. '
 
The incubator surf Anglet, opened in a crisis, should be full in April. "And there is already talk of an extension," says Frédéric Low.
 
Surfing continues to attract each year thousands of new followers. "Never surf schools have had many students. Skiing is a lifestyle that transcends fashions and cycles, "argues Pierre Agnes, President of Quiksilver Europe and surfer himself.


(  Written by Olivier Bonnefon on french source Sud Ouest )