On the heels of Solo Stove’s announced acquisitions of Chubbies Shorts, Oru Kayak and paddleboard maker ISLE last month, which saw the company remerge as outdoor lifestyle business Solo Brands, it’s looking to go public.
In a sign of what has been fueling the Southlake-based company’s growth, it has filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker DTC. It’s seeking a listing size of $100 million, likely a placeholder number, while, according to Bloomberg, eyeing a more than $1 billion valuation.
“Our innovation strategy is two-pronged: introduce fundamentally innovative and disruptive franchise products, and support those franchise products with a range of new accessories,” The company wrote in its S-1 filing.
Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Jefferies Financial Group Inc. are the bookrunners.
According to the company’s filing, Solo Stove has been on a tear, reporting a compounded annual growth rate of 132% from 2016 to June of this year. In 2020, Solo Stove saw $133 million in sales. For the first six months of this year, its sales numbers grew to $152 million. When combined with the other businesses that make up Solo Brands, its sales for the first half of the year total $225 million.
In 2020, Solo Brands saw 92% of its sales come from direct-to-consumer channels, with 85% of that coming from its brands’ websites.
The filing also gives insight into its recent acquisitions, which happened about four months before the company publicly made its announcement. In May, Solo Stove acquired 60% San Francisco-based Oru Kayaks, which came to fame with a “Shark Tank” investment in 2016 for $25.4 million. It acquired California’s ISLE for $24.8 million. And in the biggest deal, it acquired Austin-based Chubbies for $129.5 million.
“We acquire complementary brands that we believe we can optimize through our digital marketing and supply chain platform while we broaden our product assortment,” the company wrote. “Our disciplined acquisition strategy focuses on profitable, rapidly growing digitally-native brands with disruptive product offerings. We seek opportunities where our proprietary platform can drive scale and customer engagement. In turn, these brands broaden our customer reach, expand our product offering, and provide new technologies and capabilities.”
Solo Stove was launched in 2011 by co-founders and avid outdoorsmen Jeff and Spencer Jan, whose holding firm still owns a stake in the company. While best known for its portable fire pit product, its patent portfolio has grown to 60. In 2019, Bertram Capital acquired nearly 67% of Solo Stove for $52.3 million, later reforming as a Delaware LLC and acquiring the remaining shares. In 2020, it issued Class A and B units, of which Summit Partners acquired nearly 59% for $273.1 million.
Looking ahead, Solo Brands sees future growth in building out market awareness of its Oru and ISLE brands while hinting at future acquisitions in its filing. The more than 125-person company has warehouse operations in The Netherlands and expanded into the Canadian market this year. Currently, it said more than 95% of its sales come from U.S.-based customers, but over the next three years is focusing on the European and Australian markets, with plans to also establish future operations in places like Africa, South America, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific regions.
“We plan to replicate our successful U.S. DTC fulfillment model as we expand internationally,” the company wrote.
Learn more about Solo Stove’s recent moves in an interview with Solo Brands CEO John Merris here.
