Introduction
Billabong is a retail company whose products reflect the idealistic surfer’s lifestyle. They sell many surfing related goods including apparel, accessories, footwear, sunglasses, watches and board sports hardware including surfboards, skateboards and wetsuits. However, the most popular and well known products include their signature t-shirts, board shorts, backpacks and swimwear. Billabong International’s products are officially licenced in more than 100 countries and available in approximately 11,000 shops worldwide. They own approximately 6000 staff worldwide, and since 2000 are listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. Their revenue is mainly generated within Australia, in North America, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Brazil and South Africa. They market themselves internationally by associating themselves with professional athletes, junior athletes and events. Billabong sponsor many young and promising surfers and athletes in order to advertise their products to the younger generation. They even have their own surf team which people can join once the business recognises their potential. This allows the Business to promote its products to both the young people hoping to be sponsored, as well as making themselves look like a community supporting business.
Industry
Billabong International Limited (BBG) is involved in both the secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy, due to the fact that they design and produce their own goods, before selling them under their own brand name. For example, they buy the fabric for their board shorts before designing and creating them themselves and selling them under their own name in their branded store. They do not work in the primary industry as they do not product their own raw materials (they instead buy these from other suppliers). However, they are currently low on the stock market due to the recent publicity of where their products are produced which has had a dramatic impact on the companies share prices...