Whatever Happened To Animal?

As a long time stockist of Animal we were saddened to hear that in January 2021 the British surf brand Animal would cease to exist taking around 500 jobs with it. Perhaps a sign of the difficult times during the Covid era where they had to shut their stores and not be able to supply their retailers who also had to temporary shut. Or had it been struggling for a while with many new brands popping up or the bigger brands like Quiksilver and Volcom expanding their presence in the area?

For quite a few months after they closed the business, the site of course was not available but soon after there was a notice saying that it was coming back. Surely Animal hadn't changed their minds or perhaps they had managed to get hold of some funding and were starting up again? Today Animal.co.uk is back online after Mountain Warehouse bought the name. The site looks good and there's the usual models you'd expect such as the Jekyl flip flops and the Classico t-shirt but it does look a little empty. I guess Mountain Warehouse have just bought whatever stock was left over after Animal closed.

So Animal is still around but can Mountain Warehouse excel in making it the best British surf brand around? Will they offer it to other retailers or make it exclusive to their own stores? Only time will tell.