Where have you gone Justin Cameron? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you!
Stab/Stitch was the hottest thing going just months ago. How could a company combining lit AF magazine Stab, ultra-winning fin company FCS, British wave forecasting website Magic Seaweed and online retailer Swell lose? It couldn’t!
But then it did.
This morning The Australian reported:
Shares in underperforming online surfwear and action sports retailer SurfStitch have been placed in a trading halt pending an update from the company on its expected earnings for fiscal 2016.
Investors are bracing for further possible bad news that could include its third profit warning this year.
SurfStitch said in a brief statement to the Australian Securities Exchange that it needed a trading halt on its shares until Thursday as it provided the market with a “further update on its anticipated pro-forma EBITDA for the year ending 30 June 2016’’.
In May SurfStitch shares plummeted 60 per cent after it issued its second profit warning this year, following the shock resignation of SurfStitch co-founder and chief executive Justin Cameron in March.
At the time SurfStitch chairman Howard McDonald said the CEO’s departure had left one of the businesses SurfStitch acquired “exposed’’.
Under Mr Cameron’s watch the company made a string of acquisitions, spending tens of millions of dollars, to grow its business in sports media and publishing and other related sports apparel ventures.
Mr Cameron left to team up with private equity to work on a potential takeover bid for the company, but so far no bid has been sent to the SurfStitch board.
The profit downgrade in May was triggered by a slowdown in the US surf and action sports apparel market, which had forced SurfStitch to engage in discounting, further eroding margins.
It was forced to scale back earnings guidance to $2 million-$3m in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation for 2016 against an original forecast of EBITDA of $15m-$18m. SurfStitch booked pro-forma EBITDA of $7.7m in 2015.
SurfStitch shares last traded at 40.5 cents, against an IPO price of $1 when the company floated in late 2014.
Well hell.
I got halfway through the article and then realized Chas used “lit AF” in the first sentance. couldn’t pay attention for the rest
Sound of gunshot from failed fantasy surf league and second mortgage invested in stitch.
StabStitch will be filing for bankruptcy next quarter
their site still loads faster though. hope Banks starts shelling out for some BG bandwidth once they realize the true power of this business model.
sweet, i could do with a new steamer
Will you guys buy stab back when it comes back up for super cheap?
Yes!
be careful what you write today dude cuz we wouldn’t like to see Beachgrit sued. today’s Surfstitch ASX announcement is “faarrkkk”….OMG!
Just confirms my suspicion that no one actually buys clothing from surf brands.
BeachGrit make the occasional blunder as well but overall they aren’t shit and it’s forgivable. They don’t even use spell check let alone a sub editor at STAB. It’s bloody hopeless.
BeachGrits use of exclamation marks excuses it from the accepted standards and drowns out any critique of mistakes.
Or apostrophes 🌟😉
I posted elsewhere that, for the year ended 30/6/2015, Surfstitch had $17.8M in negative operating cash flow from buying too much inventory, which they did not recoup in the six months to 31/12/15. This is not related to the “string of acquisitions” they seem to be blaming for their problems. Both their trading operations & investment acquisitions appear to have issues. The trading halt certainly flags another profit downgrade.
That is interesting, I have only visited surfstitch once and I personally felt they didn’t have much in the way of actual surf gear.
Where will I get hyper stretch phantom board shorts nooooow 😫😫😫
I’d say someone is going to go to jail when it all gets looked at. Profit forecasts that high compared to the actual profit stinks of insider trading.
… going to jail for white collar crime? Gotta go bigger then this in Oz to see any real time
What is insider trading? Is it when you trade while someon is inside of you? Would I like it?
Yes that’s exactly it. It’s illegal because apparently you can’t make rational decisions while someone is inside you. As for you enjoying it I have no idea. Give it a go, who knows…
did $7.7 mil in 2015 and came out hot with $15mil to $18mil for 2016 forecast. why not predict growth in excess of 100% annually?
who could have seen this coming
Me, that’s who! I got in early, chucked in a couple of grand, saw the writing on the wall and jumped out with enough profit for two weeks in the Ments!*
*None of this is true.
I doubt that commenting site STAB is worth anything. What do they even sell?
“Words [garbage] by Morgan Williamson”
Morgan should be helping beggars in the Philippines compose their cardboard signs. That is just about the ceiling of his capability.
Why insult the beggars?
Maybe someone can get Michael Kocher to start a crowd funding account for them….