CLAIMS that Quiksilver’s American bankruptcy will leave its Australian operations unaffected are just “spin”, according to a former executive.
Phil Jarratt wrote on surfing website Swellnet that the Torquay-born surfing giant’s corporate woes had already produced “huge layoffs”.
More job cuts at Quiksilver’s Torquay base were on the way, he warned.
The Independent reported last October that private investment firm Hadrian Capital Management had predicted Quiksilver’s demise “within months”.
Mr Jarratt said Quiksilver had spent weeks trying to stave off bankruptcy.
“The tragic inevitability of it all did not diminish the tragic reality of the end of a 45-year reign for the greatest surf brand of them all,” Mr Jarratt said.
“Of course, the spin doctors jumped in immediately with assurances that this was merely a clever strategic move.”
Mr Jarratt said Quiksilver, as a publicly listed company on the New York stock exchange, owned the worldwide brand, with Australia and Europe as subsidiaries.
“In a situation as serious as this no area of operation, no colonial outpost is spared the knife, no matter how clinically correct the cuts may be.”
But Mr Jarratt said Quiksilver could still be be saved because Chapter 11 bankrupcty proceedings in the US were specifically designed to allow companies’ resurrection.
Quiksilver investor Oaktree Capital, “investment gurus with $100 billion on their accounts”, could turn the company around in a new form, he said.
“The company that Alan Green founded in a corner of the Rip Curl bakery on Boston Rd is dead and buried but with Oaktree guidance the brand may have its best chance of survival in many years.”
