Australian Swimwear Company off and racing

SYDNEY: The new parent group of swimwear brands Moontide and Bond-Eye has wasted no time in getting its hands dirty, aggressively pursuing overseas markets, introducing new diffusion lines and altering staff.

Since the death of Moontide founder Tony Hart in February, the brands' owner, Australian Swimwear Company (ASC), has dramatically ramped up both its domestic and offshore operations in an attempt to expand the group's core audience.

The ball began rolling as early as last year when ASC chief executive Robert Bright, who manufactured the majority of Moontide swimwear and was also the European licensee of both Moontide and Bond-Eye, bought the Moontide brand and all associated intellectual property off Hart for an undisclosed sum. Shortly after Sydney company Bond-Eye Traders and the 30-year-old Kiwi business were merged to create two individual brands under one holistic entity.

The move saw the Moontide Auckland office closed down, its designs and operations shift to Sydney and the principals of Bond-Eye - Steve Philpott and Natasha Sassoon - installed as ASC managing director and design director respectively.

David Cosgrove, who along with Bright, had been representing Moontide in Europe for the past 20 years and Bond-Eye for the past five, was named managing director of ASC's European and North American sales and marketing operations.

Philpott said now the two companies had been integrated, the company's next step was to stabilise and consolidate its position domestically and continue to grow the brand globally.

"With Moontide international sales currently far outweigh domestic sales. The challenge now is to integrate the Moontide brand fully into the design structure of our business here and produce a range that works for all markets taking into account the wide variety of tastes globally. Basically the range will be designed and built with a global perspective and an Australian swimwear handwriting that is incredibly attractive to the global market. We plan to build on this strength while focusing on the specific needs of our market at the same time."

Philpott said the Bond-Eye brand, which boasts a younger target market and whose strength lies in its specialist cup fitting, was now being sold within existing Moontide distribution networks and had been picked up by key European and North American retailers. He said both brands had introduced new diffusion lines for the summer 2009/10 season.

Moontide has released a diffusion line, called Moontide Eclipse, which is a compact designer-end swimwear line in luxe fabrics and styling with matching silk clothing. For its part Bond-Eye released a new range, dubbed Bond-Eye Beach Girl, which was a swim and related clothing line in fun prints for a girl/teen market.

Philpott said the new ranges, both of which were selling now, had drawn a favourable response from the market with 20 of the best swimwear accounts opening with the new Moontide line in Australia.