Billion-dollar luxury brand
Birkenstock announces its IPO in New York
September 13, 2023, 2:27 a.m
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Sandals for the rich and beautiful: Birkenstock’s health shoes are now in demand all over the world. Now the former family business from Germany is aiming for the New York Stock Exchange.
Birkenstock wants to go public on the New York Stock Exchange: The German sandal maker has filed the documents for an initial public offering in the United States, according to a document published by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on its website. The date and details of the stock market launch have not yet been announced. According to media reports, the company could be valued at more than eight billion dollars (around 7.4 billion euros).
The traditional brand was founded in 1774 by Johann Adam Birkenstock. Initially, the orthopedic company manufactured insoles. In 1963 he began producing sandals, which were initially primarily worn in the health sector before being discovered by the hippie movement and eventually becoming a lifestyle product. A pink version of the sandal recently made a major appearance in the successful Hollywood film “Barbie”.
Customers in 100 countries
The company, based in Linz am Rhein, produces almost exclusively in Germany. One of the main factories is in Görlitz on the Polish border. Birkenstock most recently made by far the largest single investment worth almost 110 million euros in Pasewalk in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In the future, the company will be able to produce 6.4 million pairs of shoes per year in a new factory there. The sandals made in Germany are sold in over 100 countries. Birkenstock has also been offering beds and cosmetics since 2017.
According to the document published on Tuesday, Birkenstock has a total of around 6,200 employees worldwide. Since 2021, the company has been owned by the US-French investment company L Catterton and the private investment company of the French billionaire Arnault family. According to the document filed with the SEC, Birkenstock had sales of 1.24 billion euros and net profit of 187 million euros in the fiscal year ending September 2022. Within eight years, the company was able to more than quadruple its sales.