Sustainable footwear brand Allbirds this Tuesday revealed it has applied to list its Class A common stock on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol BIRD. The NY Times reports that the B Corp, which was valued at around $1.7 billion in 2020, brought in about $219 million in revenue last year,
Allbirds was founded in 2014 by Tim Brown and Joey Zwillinger in New Zealand, setting out as a DTC brand specialising in sustainability. In an interview from back in 2018, Zwillinger stated that an IPO was “not desirable for a variety of reasons,” and that the Allbirds had been “profitable since basically day one.”
As has been widely reported, the company has reported major financial losses and admits it will continue to be unprofitable for the foreseeable future. According to CNBC, its net loss totaled $14.5 million in 2019 and grew to $25.9 million in 2020. For the six-month period to the end of June, the brand reported a loss of $21.1 million.
Sales revenues however grew to $219.3 million in 2020 from $193.7 million in 2019. Impressively, though perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, digital sales represented 89% of these total sales, totalling $194.6 million in 2020.
The company, which received backing from several high profile investors including Leonardo di Caprio, operated 27 brick and mortar locations at the end of June and Allbirds reportedly says it has plans for vast retail expansion, being in the “early phase of a ramp towards hundreds of potential locations.”
