Casper Sleep, the mattress and accessories producer and retailer that calls itself “a pioneer of the sleep economy,” filed to go public.
A Securities and Exchange Commission filing by the New York company did not specify a number of shares or a proposed offering price. But it said that Casper, founded in 2014, plans to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CSPR.
“We believe sleep is rapidly becoming the third pillar of wellness and is poised to undergo the same massive transformation that fitness and nutrition have as they became major consumer categories,” the company said in the filing.
Like many companies that have gone public recently, Casper touts its revenue growth rate. Its 2018 revenue, $357.9 million, was more than double its 2016 figure of $169.1 million.
For full year 2018, Casper reported a net loss of $8.91 a share, widened from $7.22 in 2017.
Casper, which Reuters reported counts the actor Leonardo DiCaprio and the rapper 50 Cent among its investors, operates 60 retail stores in the U.S. and Canada.
The company has 18 retail partners, including Amazon (AMZN) – Get Report, Costco (COST) – Get Report, Target (TGT) – Get Report and Hudson’s Bay (HBAYF)
The company also said it has a trove of data that it has gathered from webpage visits, retail-store analytics, delivery and retail partners, social media, consumer reviews and other sources.
It said it uses the data in areas like developing new products and improving current ones, creating a better website-user experience, setting pricing, and improving delivery.
It describes products in the global sleep economy, which it values at $432 billion, as bedroom furniture, bedding, mattresses, pajamas and pillows.
“The market size of the categories and geographies we currently address is $67 billion in 2019, leaving significant opportunity for growth,” Casper said in the filing.
The risk factors Casper listed for the IPO include, among others, a highly competitive industry, the need to maintain and strengthen its brand, the question of whether it can successfully expand its retail business and growth strategies, its history of operating losses and more.
No question that the industry is competitive, evidenced by the early October 2018 Chapter 11 filing by Mattress Firm Inc. The Houston company emerged from the bankruptcy process in just a few weeks.
Mattress Firm, which was acquired by the South Africa investment firm Steinhoff International in 2016, now operates 2,500 stores.
