opco - what's the go, page-4

fyi...road show in East states to Insto's starts next week..............


Another West Australian surf company picked added to Optima as top selling accessories brand added to it's exclusive U.S. Surfwear licences.

Australia's Optima Corporation Limited is set to make even bigger waves on its debut into the world's top surfing market after snapping up exclusive US rights to a top selling brand of surf accessories. The ASX-listed Optima ("OPC") - which has already snared US marketing rights to the iconic Australian surfwear clothing brand, "West" - announced today it had secured exclusive US rights to the widely respected surf accessories manufacturer, Creatures of Leisure.

The addition of "Creatures" to its line-up comes on the eve of Optima's move into the giant US retail surfwear clothing and accessories market - the largest such market in the world. Optima will launch its first retail operations through independent surf retailers in the US, initially in California, from mid-October, with exclusive American-wide rights to market the "West" clothing label.
Both the West and Creatures of Leisure product ranges were founded in Australia.
Creatures of Leisure first established operations in Dunsborough, Western Australia, 15 years ago but through international licencing and manufacturing, much of it in China, has since emerged as a market leader globally in high quality surf accessories such as leashes, deck grips and board bags.

The licencing agreement announced today gives Optima exclusive distribution and intellectual property rights for all Creatures products in the United States surfing market.

Optima has acquired the licence for an initial five years with a 10-year option.
As Creatures of Leisure products have already been in the US market for two years, selling through around 100 outlets and competing against similar popular brands, FCS, On a Mission, Da Kine and Pro-Lite, its ongoing sales from early November will also be Optima's first revenue streams since its re-listing on the ASX early this year.

Receipts from the first sales of West clothing gear are expected to be close on the heels of the maiden Creatures of Leisure proceeds.

"The Creatures licence is in line with our strategic objective of securing other surf brands that are non-competing but complementary to Optima's existing surfwear clothing licence with West," Optima's Managing Director, Mr Blair Sergeant, said today.

"The two brands, West and Creatures, are merchandised through identical distribution channels and complement each other perfectly from a logistics, marketing and brand management perspective," Mr Sergeant said. "It also gives Optima an immediate two-pronged assault on this very large and intense surfing-based market." "Established surfing names and brands in the US - be it clothing or accessories - have high customer loyalty, high brand recall but equally high expectations of product performance in surfing conditions as tough as any of those in Australia or the Pacific."

"Certainly our US launch prospects have been boosted in being able to match two high profile but complementary surfing product ranges with existing market demand."
"Creatures has earned a reputation for innovation and high technical performance and Optima will be 1ooking to assist on-going product development using direct feedback from Creatures' sponsored team of professional international surfers," Mr Sergeant said.

The Creatures surf team includes recent US Open Winner, Taj Burrow, and high profile WCT surfers including Jake Paterson, Mick Fanning, Dave Rastovich, Luke Egan, Fred Patacchia, Roy Powers, Mike Todd and Beau Young.

Under the agreement, Creatures will maintain the international surf team and provide significant US-based advertising support.