Industry News

Quiksilver to launch nutritional products and more

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 24 January, 2006 : - - San Diego - Surfing-inspired apparel maker Quiksilver Inc. (ZQK.N) plans to expand into new areas such as nutritional products and training gear, in what the leading action sports apparel company says is proof that its top brands have plenty more room to grow.

Youth-focused brand Quiksilver and the company's young women's brand, Roxy, "are still nowhere near mature" in the U.S., said Marty Samuels, Quiksilver's Americas president, who spoke to Reuters at the ASR trade show in San Diego attended by action sports lifestyle retailers and manufacturers. "A lot of people think maybe it is, and it's not."

In May, Quiksilver and Roxy brands will launch nutritional products, including fitness water and energy bars, while training gear using synthetic fabrics to keep sweat and water away from athletes' bodies will hit stores next spring.

"We bring the sensibility of our world ... to these new fabric technologies and we think it's a tremendous opportunity," Samuels said. The clothing is being tested by Quiksilver-sponsored athletes.

Roxy is also now shipping to stores a "room" line, including bedding and pillows, designed to showcase the brand not only on teenage bodies, but in their rooms as well. A clothing line for infants will come in 2007.

The new products not only reinforce the future possibilities of the brand, but bring new business to specialty retailers, Roxy Global President Steve Tully said. About the move into nutritional products, Tully said: "Our (Roxy) girl uses these products, she just doesn't buy them from us," he said, referring to the demographic for Roxy's female customers.

Read the full article by Alexandria Sage at Reuters

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Source: Reuters

Industry - Surfersvillage