Aneta Key

Jon Batiste shows how Beethoven can be played in any genre: going from classical to blues to gospel.

Birkenstock IPO’d today at a ~$8B valuation. Its CEO Oliver Reichert did a massive turnaround in the past decade: sales 5x’d from $125m in 2012 to $1.3B in 2022. The wildest part: he has zero background in footwear or fashion. Prior to taking over the top job in 2013, he was a crisis reporter in Africa and an exec at a German sports TV station. Reichert was introduced to the Birkenstock family in 2009 via an art dealer friend and became an external consultant. The brand was struggling because the Birkenstock family had three heir sons battling over strategy and control. Reichert created a plan for two of the brothers to exit the business, which simplified the corporate structure. Then he went to realize the full potential of the brand: ▫️NEW MODELS: The most iconic Birkenstocks retail for ~$130. In 2015, the company released a water-proof EVA rubber sandal at half the price, $50-60. This sandal now accounts for ~15% of the 30m Birkenstock units sold. ▫️DTC: The website Birkenstock dot com was launched in 2016 and the online channel has gone from 0% to 38% of sales in 7 years. Birkenstock went wild during the pandemic (work from home boost) and 90% of interest is word-of-mouth (US Birkenstock owners have 3.6 pairs on avg). He 3x’d the workforce to 4k+ and — even as sales grew 5x — expanded operating margin from 27% to 35%. For the effort, he owns at least ~5% of Birkenstock (~$400m). One of the better “consultant comes in and fixes business” stories I can remember. Not bad for someone who said in an interview with The Cut in 2018, “I don’t give a shit about fashion.”