Billabong has reported a $233.7 million loss after another $146 million in impairment charges, restructuring costs and financing costs combined with a 50% drop in earnings from their Americas operation. CEO Neil Fiske is blaming the result on the prior 18 months of corporate turmoil which led to a huge loss in talent and upper management in the U.S. business, which he described as “our greatest challenge and biggest opportunity.” Other regions performed better with Europe reporting a lower loss and Asia-Pacific earnings rising 8%.

As mentioned recently, the turn-around plan is in its early stages and there’s a couple of bright spots here and there – the decisions made around the North American business will have a huge effect on the future of the company. Will be interesting to see what they do there.

Read more on this over at The Age.