Billabong chief Neil Fiske vows to revive brand Billabong CEO Neil Fiske has vowed to make the company cool again. BILLABONG's founder and largest shareholder has given his blessing to the surfwear group's new chief, saying he can bring the embattled company back from the brink. Gordon Merchant said he had faith in Billabong's future because under Neil Fiske, "it now has a CEO who knows what they are doing." "He has structure and that is what Billabong lacked, structure," said Mr Merchant, the reclusive millionaire who started the company at his Gold Coast kitchen table. I now think we are heading the right way, definitely. Mr Merchant, who owns almost 16 per cent of Billabong, said he planned to buy more shares through the rights issue to be launched as part of the group's recapitalisation. US hedge funds Oaktree Capital and Centerbridge Partners are behind the scheme to inject almost $400 million in debt and equity into the group. "I will be taking up my full entitlement and more if I can get it," Mr Merchant said. Investors yesterday also showed their support for Mr Fiske and his seven-point turnaround plan, sending the company's shares up 6c, or 18.5 per cent, to close at 38.5c. Mr Fiske, credited with turning around US clothing group Eddie Bauer, vowed to make Billabong cool again. "One of the things that is neat about brands with heritage as deep and as rich as brand Billabong is they always have comeback potential," he said. 'There is actually something pretty neat in taking a heritage brand, modernising it and making it relevant again. I'm convinced Billabong will become cool again to the 15 to 18 year olds. But he admitted Billabong had lost focus. He said it would "have its work cut out" recovering from an $860 million net loss for the year to last June, and writedowns that have reduced the value of the group's namesake brand to zero. "We have been trying to do too many things - and none of them particularly well," he told shareholders yesterday at the group's annual meeting on the Gold Coast. As complexity grew, we lost focus. We confused the organisation. As someone said to me on my first global tour of the company, we need clarity. Are we a retail company with brands or are we brands with retail? After spending the past 12 weeks reviewing the company's operations, Mr Fiske said saving Billabong would require a radical restructure. Our mantra is fewer, bigger, better businesses, fewer bigger better brands and fewer bigger better styles. This philosophy will pervade everything we do. Billabong shareholders also voted against a plan led by US hedge fund Coastal Capital, which holds a 7.6 per cent stake in the company, to throw chairman Ian Pollard and two non executive directors off the board. While the trio kept their seats, about one in three votes were cast against their re-election.