Peloton, once the toast of Wall Street, has seen its stock plummet this year. Here's everything you need to know about its rollercoaster 12 months.
- Peloton's stock price has plummeted in the past 12 months.
- The high-tech fitness company was once the golden child of the connected fitness world.
- But slowing demand and product recalls have put pressure on its business.
But this is when its troubles began.
The company wasn't ready to meet such high demand. Customers started to complain about months-long delivery times, last-minute cancellations, and poor customer service. These complaints went on for months, rolling into 2021.
In the meantime, Peloton purchased fitness manufacturer Precor for $420 million to ramp up production levels and cope with demand. But in the background, the market was becoming crowded with other at-home fitness options and competition was heating up.
The regulators urged Peloton to recall the product but it initially refused, describing the US Consumer Product Safety Commission's warning as "inaccurate and misleading."
A month later, Peloton recalled the item and CEO John Foley apologized for not engaging more productively with the CPSC.
Foley later said that the US Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security had subpoenaed it for documents and other information related to its reporting of injuries associated with its products.
Peloton later brought this feature back.
As a result, Peloton's revenue growth slowed. To entice new customers, it slashed the cost of its entry-level bike by $400 in August.
In November, Peloton reported that sales of its connected fitness products fell by 17% in its first quarter fiscal 2022 results. The company also saw its smallest quarterly gain in connected fitness subscriber growth since the company went public in September 2019.
Source: Insider
Source: Insider
39 minutes into the first episode, Mr Big, (Chris Noth), Carrie's on-again, off-again love interest-turned-husband, keeled over from a heart attack after unclipping from his Peloton bike, angering Peloton's die-hard fans.
Peloton later confirmed in a comment to Insider that it wasn't aware of the full scope of the storyline ahead of time.
Peloton was praised for its cheeky response. But days later, the ad was hastily withdrawn after Noth faced allegations of sexual assault. Two women told The Hollywood Reporter that Noth had assaulted them in 2004 and in 2015, respectively. He denied these allegations.
Only select employees were invited to the party, and workers described it as "extremely opulent and tone deaf," given the company's rocky performance in recent months.
In leaked audio reported by Insider this month, execs discussed plans to lay off 41% of its sales and marketing teams and cut parts of its e-commerce and retail teams.
CNBC reported that the company hired management consultancy firm McKinsey to handle job cuts and restructurings.
Foley denied these reports and said the company was "right-sizing" production rather than halting it.
At the same time, reports emerged that the company was delaying the opening of its new $400 million Ohio factory by a year because of slowing demand. Peloton did not respond to Insider's request for comment on this.