Launching RVCA in Chile: Lessons in International Distribution and Global Brand Expansion

One of the most rewarding chapters of my career was the period when I was responsible for international development across Latin America for Billabong Group.

At the time, the company owned several iconic action sports brands including Billabong, RVCA and Element. My role as Vice President of International Development was focused on identifying opportunities to grow these brands globally while helping our teams select the right partners to bring them to new markets.

International business is often romanticized. People picture surf trips, brand events, and cool retail environments.

And yes, those things absolutely exist.

But behind every successful global brand is a large amount of strategic thinking, operational discipline, and careful partner selection.

Two Models for International Expansion

When a brand decides to enter a new international market, there are generally two approaches.

The first is to operate the business directly. This means the brand sets up its own legal entity in the country, hires a local team, manages its own distribution, and operates retail stores directly.

This model gives the brand full control. But it also comes with significant capital investment, hiring teams on the ground, opening offices and warehouses, managing inventory, navigating local regulations, handling import and export logistics, dealing with currency fluctuations, and managing geopolitical and economic risk.

For some companies and some markets, that approach makes sense.

But for many brands, particularly in earlier stages of international expansion, a partnership model can be far more effective.

The Power of Distribution Partnerships

One of the approaches I have always enjoyed working with is the distributor or licensing partnership model.

In these relationships, a local company acts as your partner in the market. They import the goods, manage retail relationships, run marketing activations, and handle the day-to-day operations required to build the brand locally.

The economics are different from running the business yourself. Your gross profit percentage may be lower, because the distributor needs to earn a margin. But what many executives forget is that the risk and capital investment are dramatically lower as well.

In most cases: the distributor purchases product in US dollars, inventory ships directly from your factory, the partner handles importation into the market, and the partner manages local operations. You are not setting up warehouses. You are not hiring local staff. You are not managing local payroll, legal structures, or labor laws. You are partnering with experts who already understand the market. And if you choose the right partner, that can be incredibly powerful.

A Rule I Have Always Followed

When a distributor is profitable, they reinvest in the business. They open new retail locations, expand marketing, and increase inventory commitments. That reinvestment becomes a flywheel that drives growth for the brand.

During this period, I had the privilege of working closely with Bill Bettencourt, then-President of RVCA, and Eric Thomas, Vice President of Global Sales. Bill had a great way of summarizing this philosophy. He used to say:

"You take dollars to the bank, not gross profit percentage points."

— Bill Bettencourt, then-President of RVCA

It is one of the simplest and most accurate statements about international business I have ever heard.

The Four Criteria for Choosing a Partner

Partner selection is everything in international expansion. Over the years I developed a framework that I used when evaluating potential distributors or licensees. There were four critical qualities.

The Chile Opportunity

Chile was an exciting market at the time. It had a strong surf culture, a growing youth lifestyle market, and a retail landscape that was rapidly evolving. But it was also a market where global brand rankings did not always mirror the United States or Australia.

One of the charts below shows the competitive landscape for the surf industry in Chile during that period. Several interesting insights emerged. For example, Maui and Sons held an estimated 41 percent share of the market, largely due to strong licensing partnerships and early entry into the region. Brands like Rip Curl, Vans, and DC Shoes were also well established. Meanwhile, Billabong held approximately 4 percent share, with significant opportunity to grow.

This illustrates an important lesson: brand dominance in one country does not automatically translate globally. Success in each market often depends on who entered first and which partner they chose.

Leveraging Existing Partnerships

Fortunately for RVCA, we were not starting from scratch in Chile. Our local partner had already launched Billabong and Element successfully in both Chile and Peru. That created a powerful advantage.

RVCA was able to benefit from existing infrastructure including established retail relationships, multi-brand retail stores, department store partnerships, and logistics and distribution systems. Products were sold through the partner's multi-brand retail stores, major department stores such as Falabella, and Billabong branded retail locations. This allowed the RVCA brand to achieve visibility and distribution much faster than if we had entered the market independently.

The Role of Multi-Brand Retail

Many distributors operate multi-brand retail concepts. These stores carry several lifestyle brands under one roof. For emerging brands entering a market, these environments are extremely valuable. They allow distributors to test product assortment, brand positioning, pricing strategy, and consumer response.

If the brand performs well, it can then expand into additional channels such as mono-brand retail stores or department store placements. This staged approach reduces risk while allowing brands to build awareness.

The RVCA Launch Event

The launch event for RVCA in Santiago was a great example of how local partners can bring a brand to life. More than 250 people attended, including media, artists, industry figures, and fans of the brand.

The evening included live DJs, music performances, art installations, and brand storytelling presentations. Bill Bettencourt spoke about the RVCA philosophy and the brand's unique positioning at the intersection of art, culture, skateboarding, and surf. Most of the evening took place in Spanish, but the energy of the event transcended language.

Watch: RVCA Chile Marketing Review Video

The team produced a marketing review video capturing the energy of the brand launch and the RVCA story in Chile. This gives you a real sense of the event atmosphere, the retail environment, and the cultural positioning that made this launch so memorable.

Art, Culture, and the RVCA Philosophy

One of the highlights of the launch event was a local artist commissioned to create a custom artwork for the occasion. The piece was printed and numbered, and every attendee received their own copy to take home as a commemorative memento.

I brought mine back to the United States and had it framed. It still hangs in my house today as a reminder of that moment and the opportunity I had to be part of RVCA's expansion into Latin America.

Why International Volume Matters

Another important lesson from international business is how global volume affects production economics.

Imagine a brand ordering 500 units of a product for the United States market. The factory price will reflect that volume. Now imagine that same product is ordered by multiple international distributors. Suddenly the order size might become 1,000 or 2,000 units globally. Higher volume allows production teams to negotiate lower costs per unit with factories. This creates global economies of scale.

Even if the margin percentage on international distributor sales is lower, the increased production volume can improve the gross profit profile of the company's domestic business. This is an often overlooked benefit of international expansion.

When Companies Get Too Greedy

During my career I have seen executives lose great opportunities because they focused too heavily on margin percentage instead of total profit dollars. Two senior executives from other companies come to mind. Both were talented leaders, but they became overly focused on protecting gross margin percentages. As a result, they walked away from distribution deals they believed were not profitable enough. In reality, those deals would have produced meaningful gross profit dollars and strengthened global production economics.

The Value of Local Expertise

Another advantage of working with distributors is that they handle many operational complexities. Local partners manage warehouses and inventory, retail staffing, e-commerce operations, customer service in the local language, returns and logistics, and local currency transactions. They also understand cultural nuances that global headquarters teams may miss. In markets where language, regulations, and consumer behavior differ significantly from the home market, this local expertise is invaluable.

A Connection to Another Story from Santiago

Lessons from Chile

The Chile trip reinforced several key principles of international brand expansion.

Final Thoughts

Looking back on that trip to Santiago in 2017, I am grateful for the opportunity to work with such talented teams and partners. Launching a brand internationally is never easy. But when you have the right strategy, the right partners, and the right people involved, it becomes an incredibly rewarding experience.

And sometimes, if you're lucky, you end up bringing home a framed piece of art that reminds you of the journey.