Quiksilver is exploring new ways to grow by combining the expertise collected by its remaining brands and its managers in different fields under the leadership of Andy Mooney, the former executive of Nike and Disney who became the group's president and chief executive in January of last year.

For example, it wants to bring Quiksilver's and Roxy's know-how and sourcing power in apparel to the DC brand of shoes, and vice versa. Footwear currently represents around 25 percent of the group's revenues, but Mooney's expects a “dramatic change” by the spring of 2015.

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Similarly, the Roxy brand could go beyond surf and snow wear into categories such as fitness and running, addressing young women with an average age of 30 years. The Roxy brand has already entered areas such as yoga and the outdoor.

The cross-fertilization and line extension subjects are being explored by Tom Hartge and Pierre Agnès, who were appointed a year ago as global heads of footwear and apparel for all the group's brands, respectively. Agnès remains president of Quiksilver Europe, and he is getting some help from a previous colleague of Mooney at Nike, Alan Vickers, who has moved over from the U.S. to France to act as a consultant after working for Nautilus and Brown Shoe Company. He had already been French country manager of Nike at one point in his long career.

In another important nomination, Eric Kerlogot, retail director of Quiksilver Europe, has been recently appointed head of retail with worldwide responsibilities. One of his tasks will be to broaden the French Boardriders store concept, which will be introduced in the U.S. at a couple of locations this year (see the article in SGI Europe no. 25-1+2 of last Jan. 14).

Federating all the group's brands and blending them with others such as GoPro or Skullcandy, the experiential Boardriders format has been particularly successful. However, the company wants to remain very selective and apply it mainly in big cities such as Rio de Janeiro, New York, Shanghai or Beijing after its exceptional performance in suburban Moscow, where it has been working out very well.

The direct-to-consumer business already represents about one-third of the group's revenues, and Mooney sees big opportunities also in e-commerce. The Scot, who supervised the genesis of the Nike iD product customization program, would like it to develop especially through “reverse showrooming” in order to increase customers' conversion to purchases from the current rate of 2 percent of the visits to the group's three websites. The idea is to tell the story behind the product on the web and encourage people to go to the physical stores to make their purchases.

Regionally, Brazil and Russia have been the fastest-growing markets for the group lately. The company would like to do more in China, where it has a joint venture partner there for Quiksilver and Roxy. While the local company runs about 40 Quiksilver shops, DC has its own operation in the country with a dozen stores. Discussions are taking place with a view to combining all operations in China in one way or another.

Meanwhile, the group is looking for licensees for products like eyewear and watches, which have been developed in-house at great expense and represent only about 10 percent of sales. It has already done so by licensing out its children's business in the U.S. to Li & Fung, eliminating 25 percent of its SKUs in the country, and it is actively exploring similar partnerships in the rest of the world.