Of course its the that woman gets suspended 🤬🤬🤬🤬Red Bull suspend woman who accused Christian Horner of inappropriate behaviour - BBC News https://t.co/oJAjo5OPkI
First paperback copies of LITB arrived today - thank you @jbirkett and the designers at @VikingBooksUK I love it. Out on Feb 28th available to order now. Please spread the word
Since he’s this year’s Christmas number one, here’s a reminder of the time George Michael sent £15k to a Deal or No Deal contestant to pay for her fertility treatment, and another £25k to a woman he saw crying in a café 💚
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.”
I’m not quite sure how to explain what’s happened tonight, because it’s still happening - but here goes…
At 4:40pm I jumped on a train from London to Edinburgh..
It was comfy, it was quiet
In hindsight, too good to last…