o'Neill launches new retail concept in UK

O’Neill has confirmed plans to open a brand new flagship store at Bluewater Shopping Centre, Kent, this December.

The new retail concept is inspired by Jack O’Neill – founder of O’Neill and inventor of the wetsuit – with instore fixtures and fittings reflecting his unique lifestyle and iconic house which overlooks the Pacific coastline in Santa Cruz, Northern California. The first store to open with the new ‘Jack’s House’ concept was in Amsterdam - near to the brand’s European Head Office in Warmond. The Bluewater store will follow this same concept and the theme is planned to be rolled out across own operated stores, franchise stores and shop-in-shop concept areas during 2010.

The decision to launch the new retail concept in the UK follows O’Neill Europe recently setting up a brand new UK subsidiary, O’Neill UK, to handle all aspects of sales, marketing and distribution of the brand in the UK.

With new offices based on the South Coast, O’Neill UK (formerly The Watersports Company Ltd) are a team of board sports veterans with 25 years industry experience, previously distributing brands such as Reef. Jon Plackett, Sales Director said, “This is a great opportunity for us to represent such a premium level boardwear brand as O’Neill and use our teams expertise to create good communication with retailers, customer service and brand visibility in the market.”

Peter Caldwell, who has been involved with distributing O’Neill Wetsuits for the last 18 years, takes the new role of Country Manager: “We already have a great reputation for quality and innovation with our wetsuits among core retailers. Now we have the opportunity to build that same brand credibility for O’Neill clothing. The new Autumn Winter collection is in the stores, demand for re-orders has been high and sell-through figures are already looking strong. We see this as a new era for O’Neill and are looking forward to the challenge.”

O’Neill plans to announce details of further UK retail stores before 2010.

O’Neill UK Head Office: +44 (0)1243 673666