Gold Coast e-tailers HiSmile and SurfStitch are on the move to Burleigh Heads and Broadbeach

Two leading Gold Coast e-tailers are using the economic downturn to move their operations and position for growth.

A GOLD Coast firm and its 65 staff would have been lost to Sydney if not for CEO Justin Hillberg teaming up with the city’s council to fight for it to stay on the Glitter Strip.

E-tailer SurfStitch, which sells surfing and action sportswear online, is owned by Sydney-based Alceon Group. Alceon had planned to shift the company and its 65-strong workforce to the Emerald City when it needed to downsize the Burleigh Heads operation.

But Mr Hillberg said at the same time, its landlord had an approach from rock star Gold Coast company HiSmile, which was interested in moving to the Burleigh-Connection Rd premises.

“The landlord said: if you want to downsize I have the perfect tenant that wants to come in but you’ve got to move quickly,” Mr Hillberg said.

Alceon director Richard Facioni and SurfStitch CEO Justin Hillberg pictured outside of the ‘landmark’ SurfStitch HQ in Burleigh Heads. Photo by Richard Gosling

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“Because we had that tight deadline our parent company said let’s bite the bullet and move you down to Sydney, which is not what we wanted.”

Mr Hillberg said SurfStitch’s long history on the Gold Coast – based in the city for 10 years after relocating from Sydney – and close community ties meant he needed to find a way to stay.

“We have been through a fair bit on the Gold Coast and have a lot of loyalty from the community here and a lot of local staff we employed here both across the Coomera and Burleigh sites,” Mr Hillberg said.

“We want everyone to enjoy life and their weekends so what better place to do it than the Gold Coast? It kind of ties in with our brand really well.”

HiSmile co-founders Nik Mirkovic and Alex Tomic, pictured at their current Mermaid Beach premises. They will move the company to the SurfStitch HQ in Burleigh Heads. Photo: Richard Gosling

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He approached the Gold Coast City Council in March to see what sort of plan they could develop to keep the company local.

”We worked with the council to put together a proposal to keep us on the Gold Coast and we were successful,” he said.

“There were some financial incentives. We had to find the right place as well. We were actually pretty lucky because we almost fluked that place in Broadbeach because we went past it and the owner had it for sale previously and had started to do some remodelling and was preparing to put it on the market.”

That ‘place’ is 2769 Gold Coast Highway, formerly home to the Academy of Design. Before that it was a family restaurant.

SurfStitch CEO Justin Hillberg outside the new premises in Broadbeach. Pic Tim Marsden

Mr Hillberg said the move to Broadbeach would cut its space from 1500sq m in Burleigh to 900sq m.

He said SurfStitch was still renovating the premises to get it ready for the move with an early June date in mind.

“It should be ready to go by the first of June. Then I think we will stagger our launch into the space, so one department at a time.”

Mr Hillberg said the business was seeing strong sales despite the downturn in the economy.

HiSmile co-founder Nik Mirkovic said the company was looking for distinctive office space when the SurfStitch premises became available.

“For us we are excited to get a bigger space,” he said.

“We didn’t just want a cubicle office, a stereotypical environment, we wanted something with character.

“This is a landmark building.”