Even Margot Robbie wears Birkenstocks. Formerly exclusively associated with the search for comfort, the famous sandals have become a fashion accessory, notices the Financial Times. “They appear today in the pages of the magazine Vogue and they were seen on Barbie’s feet, normally wearing stiletto heels, in the summer hit movie.”
In November 2022, an old pair of Birkenstocks worn by Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple, was sold at auction in New York for $218,750 (or 205,000 euros). This shows that the German brand is currently experiencing its “moment”. No wonder it took the opportunity to submit its IPO application to Wall Street on Tuesday, September 12.
The document reveals that the company, controlled since 2021 by the investment company L Catterton, with which the world leader in luxury LVMH and its boss, Bernard Arnault, are associated, through the financier Agache, released the last year a net profit of 187 million euros for a turnover of 1.24 billion euros.
Strong growth opportunities
It is to Johann Adam Birkenstock, a shoemaker in a small town in western Germany towards the end of the 18th century, that the sandals owe their name, recalls the British economic daily. And it was one of his descendants, Konrad Birkenstock, who designed the famous Arizona model in the early 1960s, with its two buckled straps and its cork and latex sole supposed to respect the anatomy of the foot.
Today, only two members of the family are still minority shareholders in the company, which employs – still in Germany – around 6,200 people. But the brand claims “the creative versatility of a start-up inspired by Silicon Valley” and of “solid growth opportunities”.
Still, the market valuation of the brand, announced at over $8 billion for an IPO in October, could “give light bulbs” to investors, even though the company was bought by L Catterton for $4.3 billion (a little over 4 billion euros) only two years ago.
“In 2020, the company had revenue of $728 million. By 2022, it had grown to $1.24 billion, an annual growth rate of more than 30%. Investors might reasonably wonder whether Birkenstock will continue to grow at such a sustained pace.”
2023-09-15 01:53:04
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