Birkenstock, the iconic footwear company that dates back to the 18th century, made true on the rumors swirling last week when it went public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company filed its IPO registration statement on Tuesday afternoon.
As CNBC reports, the deal, which comes over two years after the Birkenstock family sold a majority stake in the company to LVMH-affiliated private equity firm L Catterton, is drawing attention for the growth it’s seen since the investor buyout, and a bump for the brand after its recent cameo in the wildly popular movie “Barbie.”
The first record of the Birkenstock name in connection with the footwear industry was in 1774, when Johann Adam Birkenstock is recorded as a “subject and cobbler” in his German village. Konrad Birkenstock, grandson of Johann, followed in his grandfather’s footsteps, crafting the world’s first footbed with contoured arch support in 1902. He would later sell flexible arch support inserts to German shoe manufacturers. The first Birkenstock sandal was created in 1963 by Karl, the grandson of Konrad. In 1966, the iconic shoe was brought to America by Margo Fraser, a German dressmaker who lived in California. This is likely where the brand’s “hippie” associations first came to be – the shoes were primarily stocked by health food stores.
Birkenstock’s first foray into high fashion was through a shoot photographed by Kim Knott for British Elle in 1985. Five years later, the shoes became even more entrenched in America’s fashion consciousness when iconic model Kate Moss wore them during her cover shoot for The Face (shot by Corinne Day). In more recent history, the brand has collaborated with Rick Owens, Dior, and Manolo Blahnik, among many other big names in fashion.
The company’s latest publicity driver may be the biggest of all: the brand’s Arizona sandal has a prominent role in this summer’s blockbuster billion-dollar film “Barbie.” In the movie, Barbie (played by Margot Robbie) is forced to choose between pursuing knowledge of the “real world” – the Birkenstock – or returning to a state of ignorance – an unbranded stiletto. Though Barbie attempts to choose the stiletto, she eventually chooses the Birkenstock, and goes on to learn the truth about the human world. At the end of the movie, Barbie is depicted in the real world wearing a pair of pink Birkenstocks.
“Looking at comparable companies trading very well this year probably encourages Birkenstock, and maybe some other fashion names to go public,” said Angelo Bochanis, IPO analyst at Renaissance Capital.
Birkenstock now plans to IPO with an $8 billion valuation. Birkenstock moved away from its long-held family ownership structure in 2021, when L Catterton, an LVMH-backed private equity firm, acquired majority stake in the company. At the time, the deal valued the brand at $4.85 billion. Annual revenue has increased from roughly $781 million in 2020 to over $1.3 billion in 2022, a 31% annual growth rate. The IPO filing did not include a potential valuation, but it disclosed that net revenue for the six months ended March 31 rose 19% to $692.9 million, though profit declined compared to the year-ago six-month period by 45.3%.
Birkenstock plans to trade under the “BIRK” ticker on the New York Stock Exchange.
“Consumers buy our products for a thousand wrong reasons,” stated Birkenstock CEO Oliver Reichert in the IPO prospectus. “But they all come back … Through the strong reputation and universal appeal of our brand — enabling extensive word-of-mouth exposure and outsized earned media value — we have efficiently built a growing global fanbase of millions of consumers that uniquely transcends geography, gender, age and income,” Reichert said.
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