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HIGHLIGHTS
- Gymshark is planning to go public and has been engaging in preliminary talks with investment banking companies.
- The athleisure business has created a huge customer base among youth customers, with over a million followers on social media platforms.
Gymshark an athleisure business, is planning to go public and has been engaging in preliminary talks with investment banking companies and institutional investors about a future flotation of its shares on the stock market.
The decision to move ahead with a stock market listing makes Gymshark one of the most eagerly awaited IPO listings of a UK-based consumer-focused company for some time.
About Gymshark
Gymshark was established by a teenager Ben Francis in the year 2012. The company was founded in the founder’s parents’ garage in Birmingham. The company focuses on manufacturing products that appeal to millennial and Gen Z customers. It is engaged in the sales of lifestyle apparel and accessories and intends to expand into health-related offerings. The company became an international success story and reached a valuation of £1 billion last year. It currently boasts of a customer base in over 130 nations across the globe.
Association with General Atlantic
In August 2020, Ben Francis, now aged 29 years, sold a 21% per cent stake to General Atlantic, a private equity firm. Gymshark is working with General Atlantic to build Gymshark into a global leading athleisure brand. Francis continues to retain a controlling stake in the company, which implies that he is one of the wealthiest young people under 30 years in the UK. He is currently in line for a fortune worth £700 million.
When is the company set to go public?
Gymshark is aggressively being pitched by investment banking firms over the last few months. An initial public offering of the company’s shares would most likely be on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in the next few months. The speculation comes after some of the other LSE-listed online fashion retailers, including boohoo (LON: BOO), The Hut Group (LON: THG) and ASOS (LON: ASC), have been in the news recently for the creation of an underwhelming environment for online consumer brands that went public.
Marketing initiatives
Gymshark has created a huge customer base among youth customers, with over a million followers on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. The brand's marketing is mainly through social media influencers and direct sales through digital channels. It also opened a pop-up store for a short duration in London in 2020.
Its strategy
Gymshark intends to compete with some of the globally-renowned sportswear brands such as Nike and Adidas and intends to emerge as a one-stop solution for all the fitness needs of people.
