Shop Eat Surf Debuts Inaugural Ranking of the Largest Surf Specialty Retailers
Hawaiian Island Creations has topped the list of Shop Eat Surf’s inaugural listing of the 25 largest core surf specialty retailers.
This year’s list saw 17 of the 25 retailers reporting their information to SES, following a call for entries in February. The rest of the list is based off of research and past reporting. Those who reported their information to SES employ a collective workforce of 2,468 employees during peak periods of their respective businesses.
The retailers in the top three – HIC, Ron Jon and Quiet Storm – all have footprints in the double digits.
Four-door retailers were the most common on the list, with six businesses filling in those slots. Retailers with three or seven doors were the next most frequent, with five retailers in each of those groups.
The release of today’s list kicks off a special report focused on specialty retail, with stories running throughout the rest of the week for SES Executive Edition members, including an in-depth discussion of private label strategies, and interviews with HIC CEO Leigh Tonai and Hobie retail leader Jake Schwaner.