German sandal maker Birkenstock has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the US, according to a filing on Tuesday.
The company will continue to be controlled by private equity firm L Catterton.
The proposed terms of the share sale will be disclosed in a later filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The IPO could value Birkenstock at more than $8 billion, with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Morgan Stanley leading the offering.
The IPO comes more than two years after L Catterton and the family investment company of billionaire Bernard Arnault acquired a majority stake in Birkenstock, valuing it at about €4 billion ($4.3 billion).
Listings Boost
Birkenstock’s IPO filing comes as the US market for IPOs looks like it’s finally coming back to life after 18 months in the doldrums. It follows other IPOs from SoftBank Group Corp.’s semiconductor designer Arm, grocery delivery firm Instacart Inc., and marketing and data automation provider Klaviyo Inc.
‘Oldest Startup’
Birkenstock, founded nearly 250 years ago, developed a contoured insole for greater comfort. The modern, cork-lined sandals took hold in the 1970s, as shoppers from the US Southwest to Europe became enamoured with the comfy style. Birkenstock has since become a high-fashion brand, launching collaborations with luxury names such as Dior, Manolo Blahnik, and Valentino, and spawning variants from labels including Celine and Givenchy.
More than half (54%) of the company’s customers are in the Americas, with Europe accounting for 36%, according to Tuesday’s filing.
While women make up 72% of Birkenstock customers, the footwear has broad cross-generational appeal, led by millennials with 31% of sales, followed by baby boomers with 30%, Gen X with 27%, and Gen Z with 12%.
“We see ourselves as the oldest startup on earth,” CEO Oliver Reichert said in a letter to investors included in the filing. “We are a brand backed by a family tradition of a quarter of a millennium with the resilience, timeless relevance, and credibility of a multi-generational business.”
Sales have been boosted of late by the blockbuster Barbie movie, whose star Margot Robbie sports a pair of pink Birkenstocks in one scene. For the six months ended March 31, the company had a net profit of €40 million on revenue of €644 million, according to the filing. That compares with €73 million on revenue of €543 million during the same period a year ago.
Birkenstock has also been investing heavily in building out its production sites in Germany, including a new €120 million factory in Pasewalk, a town north of Berlin.
The company plans to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BIRK.
