Billabong Ready to Settle In

Meanwhile, the new Billabong USA is “bursting at the seams” at its temporary Irvine offices and eager to move into its new home, which is being built at the north end of Irvine Spectrum, President Paul Naude said Monday.

Billabong’s 80,000-square-foot headquarters should be complete Dec. 23, Naude said. “We’ll have a state-of-the-art facility come the beginning of the year,” he said.

The former Billabong site in Costa Mesa is now home to Hurley International, the new line by Bob Hurley, Billabong’s former licensee.

Billabong has, in a sense, been reconstructed from the inside out, with all new executives and about 35 employees, a number that Naude said should double by the end of March.

“We had to build a fairly sizable infrastructure from scratch in a fairly short period of time,” he said. “We’re absolutely on schedule to launch the summer line in early January. And we will begin shipping our girls product in January as well.”

When Hurley was in charge, Billabong girls surf wear was handled by Burleigh Point in San Francisco, but that too has changed. The girls line has now merged with Billabong USA, and all Billabong products will be handled in Irvine, Naude said.

“We feel pretty good about the future,” he said.