Peloton reported on Thursday a 172 percent spike in sales during its fourth quarter. While the company's high-tech exercise bike has become ubiquitous in the COVID era, COO and co-founder Tom Cortese said the sales were just a continuation of its rapid rise.
"As far as we're concerned, we've been on a path since we put the first Peloton product in the first home in 2014, where we've seen almost a doubling of the company each year since then," Peloton COO and co-founder Tom Cortese told Cheddar. "We see what's happened with COVID as just an acceleration of the trend that has already been very well in existence."
Sales jumped from $223 million in the fourth quarter of last year to $607 million in its 2020 Q4, exceeding the company's own forecast of $582.5 million.
The New York City-based company's confidence isn't letting up either, with a forecast of more than $720 million in sales in the first quarter of next year.
Peloton's rise has been so rapid that it's struggled at times to keep up with consumer demand, in part because the company has kept much of its delivery operations in-house.
In a letter to shareholders, the company said that a resurgence in COVID-19 cases has created an "imbalance of supply and demand in many geographies, causing continued elongated order-to-delivery windows for our customers" that isn't likely to be remedied until Q2 2021.
"We've been investing in our own end-to-end supply chain for quite some time now," Cortese said. "We do a great number of our deliveries through our own trucks, our own staff, and we've scaled that operation up massively in all of the markets where we operate."
In addition to the roll-out of two new bikes, the original Peloton bike is set for a significant price cut — from $2,245 to $1,895 — potentially leading to even more demand.
"We have been able to see great efficiencies in the scale that we've created, and we thought the best thing that we could do with those efficiencies is pass them along to our customers," Cortese said.
In response to rumors of a new "strength" product line — which was hinted at in a recent job posting — Cortese maintained that the company would not be resting on its laurels.
"What I can confirm is that we are not sitting idly by," he said. "We've spent the last eight and a half, nine years building this company into what it is today."
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
