O’Neill South Pacific has moved to a new bigger site in Brookvale, NSW. According to GM Michael Heath, the company has outgrown its old space and O’Neill is investing in additional resources (both people and warehousing facilities) as part of a 5-year growth plan. The Sydney office will now be the regional office for O’Neill in the Asia Pacific, housing both its domestic (Australian) team and also an International team whose role will be to build the O’Neill brand further within the APAC region. The new facility will provide additional showroom space designed to showcase O’Neill’s expanded apparel, accessory, wetsuit and outerwear product ranges, along with new categories like eyewear and audio. The Brookvale location will provide state of the art communication and multi-media facilities. A grand opening is scheduled - according to Heath “We’ll be celebrating the opening of the new site in style with our key customers and the industry soon.” Billabong Rings the Changes Billabong has offered some staff redundancies or new positions as the company moves to restructure its business. This follows a string of international and national acquisitions. "We are currently working on the restructuring of some departments, including product design and development," said a Billabong spokesman. "This, in particular, is a response to a reduction in range sizes as retailers increase their buying focus on our more heavily marketed styles. At the same time we are growing other areas of our business, as has been foreshadowed with some recent acquisitions including the purchase of a neighbouring property, and this will result in an overall increase in staffing levels." Earlier this year, Burleigh Heads based Billabong International bought the neighbouring property owned by Cult Industries for $10.6 million. The long-term plan is to join it to its current headquarters, increasing its footprint on the Gold Coast. Oakley South Pacific appoints Beau Emerton World Championship Tour veteran Beau Emerton has joined Oakley and will be responsible for surf, skate, MX and wake sports marketing. Beau comes to Oakley after three years’ experience at Red Bull and will be based in Oakley's Queensland office. "I'm really excited to be employed by one of my original sponsors and I'm looking forward to helping guide the careers of Oakley's riders." said Emerton. Turf N Surf Sydney based Turf N Surf (distributors of Sanuk, Ando and Brixton) has employed Rebecca Johnston head of marketing (formerly from Woolworths) and Matt Paull as assistant brand manager (formerly from Tracks and Waves). Unit Announces New Global Sales Manager [photo]

Unit Technologies have announced the appointment of Brian Cross as its new global sales manager. Cross comes from a successful three-year stint at Fox Racing as the company’s international business manager. Unit founder and marketing manager, Paul Everest, is ecstatic about the addition of Cross to the Unit team. “There are very few people more qualified and suited to the role of global sales manager than Brian,” Paul says. “He’s got an infectious passion for action sports and has the experience and initiative to continue driving Unit forward.”
Quiksilver Bolster Wintersports Division Former top professional snowboarder Marcus Stoker has joined Quiksilver’s local entity Ug Manufacturing as part of its revamped Wintersports Division and expanded Mervin Manufacturing brands Gnu and Lib Tech, Stoker will be covering Australia’s northern states NSW, QLD as well as WA. He’ll be based in Quiksilver’s Balgowlah office in Sydney. In addition, former DC rep Andrew “Chewy” Crichton will represent Mervin brands in southern states, Vic, SA and Tas. Chewy has come across from DC and will be based at Quiksilvers head office in Torquay. The pair will report to Jeff Sweeney at the Wintersports Division. JJ Does Billabong Pro Former Quiksilver Media Manager has joined Billabong as its Event Media Manager. JJ’S first assignments are the Billabong Pro J-bay and the upcoming Billabong Pro Tahiti.

New Faces at DC New faces at DC Australia with former Vans guy Alex Hawkin joining DC along with Scott Clarke based at DC in Torquay Rip Curl New Crew

The search is over for Rip Curl’s new girls wear product manager with the company announcing Nicky Rowsell has joined the company. Roswell holds a Business Marketing Degree and has had over a decade of experience in lifestyle/fashion as well as running her own swimwear label, Flamingo Sands. Roswell had also provided creative consultancy to brands such as Sportsgirl, Adidas, Levis and Country Road. Meanwhile, the Curl also announced Dave Altheim as its newest addition to its global boardshorts team.

More Love For One Love One Love Agency (Tina Friend) has been appointed the agents for Makia Clothing as well as the distributor for les ettes and NSW agents for AIAIAI, and Ocean Zone. The newly formed Agency is on a roll, also being appointed the NSW snow region agents for Electric Visual.

Bates Misfit Former Insight International Business Manager, Stuart Bates has joined The Misfit Group. Bates joins former Insight Sales Manager Chris Chong and local board designer Dave Howell at the Sugarmill Surf Emporium, a store they describe as a ‘unique surf lifestyle-inspired retail concept’. Bates brings over 15 years’ industry experience, most recently at Insight and prior to that with Quiksilver and Surfection in National Sales roles. He’ll spearhead the strategic direction of Sugarmill, including inventory and buying systems, operations and growth initiatives. Chong told ASB back in March those growth initiatives included becoming ‘the Urban Outfitters of surf in Australia." Check out www.sugarmillsurf.com Bill Bahne Joins Firewire Bill Bahne, a veteran of the surfboard building industry, has joined Firewire as the Head of quality control (QC). Bahne served as President of SIMA’s Board Builders Committee in 2008. Bahne received criticism in some sections of the industry for his decision to move to Asia to embrace boards manufactured there after earlier advocating the plight of local shapers. Bahne will spend much of his time at Firewire’s wholly owned Thai factory and will report directly to Firewire’s Operations Manager. Slattery Salutes The Mo Movember co-founder, Luke Slattery has resigned from his position on the Movember board. Since starting in 2003 Movember has become one of the fastest growing charitable organizations in the southern hemisphere. “Movember for me started back in 2003 as a simple conversation over a few beers with Travis Garone. From starting as a way to raise funds and a little bit of awareness for Prostate Cancer, to starting the Movember Foundation with Justin Coghlan and Adam Garone and changing the face of men’s health globally, one moustache at a time,” said Slattery. Valla Bella After 7-year stint at Krites as PR and Marketing Manager, Bella Jakubiak has resigned from the company. Olivia Corbett will assume Bella’s role as Marketing and PR Manager.