SurfStitch restructuring European operations

By

Sarah Ahssen

Published
Apr 30, 2015

The Australian online action sports retailer is restructuring in Europe and will close down its eponymous site to focus on Surfdome, which it acquired six months ago from Quiksilver Inc.

SurfStitch will also close down its 65,000 square foot distribution warehouse located in Hossegor, France, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. According to the American site Shop Surf Eat, Surfdome had 25.7 million annual visitors to its site in Europe during its 2014 fiscal year, while SurfStitch had 6.7 million. 

"We've only had control of them for six months. As part of the consolidation effort, we see some opportunity to remove those duplicate cost structures out of the system in a global context and generate synergy benefits from having a single database and sharing brand engagement and the like," said CEO and co-founder of Surfstitch, Justin Cameron to the Australian newspaper.

In September 2014, the Australian duo took direct control of SurfStitch, which was created in 2007, from Billabong. At the same time, they also acquired Billabong’s other e-tailer Swell.com, which is based in North America.

With this restructuring in Europe, the company is reaffirming its ambition to become the global leader in board sports e-commerce. Last December, the company made its debut on Sidney Stock Exchange with a valuation of 142 million euros.