Quiksilver Team Rider Kelly Slater winning his 11th ASP World Champ Title. Photo by ASP.

On December 15, 2011, Quiksilver, which has had a tough time of things during this recession, announced revenues grew 10% to $545.2 million compared with $495.1 million in the fourth quarter in 2010.

Consolidated net revenues for the year grew 6% to $1.95 billion compared with $1.84 billion in 2010.

Bob McKnight, CEO and President of Quiksilver said, “We’re pleased to report another quarter of solid financial results and we exit 2011 in great shape to deliver improved performance in 2012 in line with our long-term goals. We made investments in 2011 to deliver better products from each of our brands, but we are most encouraged by the performance of our Roxy brand, which continues to gain traction in the marketplace and whose revenue performance compared to prior periods has improved steadily in the past 5 quarters. Additionally, despite particularly challenging consumer environments in parts of Europe and Australasia, we continue to see solid growth in our emerging and developing markets around the world.”


From the Roxy blog.

Ironically, while Quiksilver states that Roxy has performed well, the women’s pro surf competitions have been suffering this year due to lack of sponsorship. Read more about this situation here. In addition, Quiksilver hosted for the first time, the Quiksilver Pro NYC in Long Beach, Long Island with the largest men’s purse in surfing history at $1 million.

Just as this story went to press, Quiksilver announced they would be canceling the Quiksilver Pro NYC in Long Beach for 2012. High costs for the event were blamed, in part due to Hurricane Irene that devasted much of the area just 1 week before the event in 2011.

Many changes at Roxy have included restructuring of the brand management team and various lay-offs, plus refocusing the brand and going back to the California surfing roots they started with. Other key marketing incentives include the fact that legendary Quiksilver team rider Kelly Slater won his 11th ASP World Surf title which brought in unprecedented attention to the brand. Kelly has since stated after the Billabong Pipe Masters last week that he will pick and choose which events he decides to compete in next year, indicating the end of an era.

In other Quiksilver news, they have named Paul McAdam the former CEO of AllSaints North America, as President of Retail. For anyone who has never seen the AllSaints store in Manhattan, it’s an impressive space and uniquely attractive with a plethora of sewing machines, eclectic and streetwear and rock ‘n roll inspired mix of clothing, accessories, and footwear and a perfectly balanced selection and appeal in terms of catering to males and females.