Surfstitch Australia, the online retailer specializing in action sports products, has been taken over by an entity of the Alceon Group, a private equity firm. The offer was approved by creditors of the Surfstich Group at a meeting early last month. Alceon already owns Ezibuy, an online retailer of clothing and homewares, which processes more than 1.75 million orders per year from customers in Australia and New Zealand. The buyer said that the two companies would operate independently, but they would take advantage of benefits of scale from the combination, which generates joint sales of about AS$225 million. Alceon said in a statement that the underlying Surfstitch Australia business is fundamentally sound, but it has been caught up in the group's bankruptcy. This has caused uncertainty for staff, suppliers and customers, which has come to an end with the deal, Alceon added. Alceon intends to invest in the business under its management team, led by Justin Hillberg. Surfstitch was started by Lex Pedersen and Justin Cameron in 2007. Billabong International sold its 51 percent stake in the online retailer in 2014. The ASX-listed retailer then acquired Swell.com in the U.S. from Billabong and Surfdome in Europe from Quiksilver. The Surfstitch group went into administration last August.

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