Rent the Runway Is a Listing to Be Depreciated -- Heard on the Street
Rent the Runway Is a Listing to Be Depreciated -- Heard on the Street
By Laura Forman
劳拉·福尔曼(Laura Forman)著
Leave it to a fashion company to dress itself up for the big show.
让一家时装公司为这场盛大的时装秀着装吧。
Ahead of its public offering next week, Rent the Runway Inc. said in a securities filing Monday that it is seeking a valuation of as much as $1.5 billion on a fully diluted basis -- roughly half a billion dollars more than where it was valued in March 2019 before the pandemic temporarily kiboshed the need for any kind of wardrobe other than sweatpants.
在下周的公开募股之前，Rent the Runway Inc.周一在一份证券申报文件中说，在完全稀释的基础上，该公司正在寻求高达15亿美元的估值，比2019年3月疫情爆发之前的估值高出约5亿美元，当时该公司暂时不再需要运动裤以外的任何服装。
Like so many companies going public these days, Rent the Runway is either profitable or unprofitable, depending on which equation you use. In its prospectus it cites "gross profit excluding product depreciation." The company says the metric is used as an indicator of the cash gross profit available to cover its costs, expenses and capital expenditures.
就像如今许多即将上市的公司一样，Rent the Runway要么盈利，要么无利可图，这取决于你使用的方程式。该公司在招股说明书中引用了“不包括产品折旧的毛利”。该公司表示，这一指标被用作可用于支付成本、支出和资本支出的现金毛利的指标。
Conveniently, the calculation is flattering for all seasons. For the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2021, Rent the Runway's prospectus shows a gross profit margin excluding product depreciation of 54%. Meanwhile, on the basis of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, the e-commerce company hasn't made money since spring 2019.
方便的是，这个计算在所有季节都是令人愉快的。在截至2021年1月31日的财年，Rent the Runway的招股说明书显示，不包括产品折旧的毛利率为54%。与此同时，根据调整后的利息、税项、折旧和摊销前利润(EBITDA)，这家电商公司自2019年春季以来一直没有盈利。
Rent the Runway, which makes money through subscription and one-time fashion rentals in addition to a newer resale offering, describes its business as a "closet in the cloud." While it is true that most of that model allows women to wear what they want without having to own any of it, this description has a lot of stretch. The fashion company uses technology and data to better personalize styles for its customers, inform demand for its brands, and augment lifetime value and return on investment for its own business. The business itself exists beyond the confines of the internet, though.
Rate the Runway除了提供较新的转售服务外，还通过订阅和一次性时装租赁来赚钱，该公司将其业务描述为“云中的衣橱”。虽然大多数这种款式确实允许女性穿自己想穿的衣服，而不必拥有任何衣服，但这种描述有很大的夸张之处。这家时尚公司利用技术和数据为客户更好地个性化款式，告知对其品牌的需求，并为自己的业务增加终身价值和投资回报。不过，这项业务本身并不局限于互联网。
Ultimately, Rent the Runway deals in physical clothing that has to be physically worn. An essential cost to such a closet, then, is depreciation -- assets that physically fly across time zones and experience physical wear and tear. Hems get stepped on at work. Sequins fall off at weddings. Red wine pretty much always stains.
归根结底，Rent the Runway经营的是必须实际穿着的实物服装。因此，这样一个壁橱的一个基本成本就是折旧--即在物理上跨越时区、经历物理损耗的资产。裙摆在工作时会被踩到。亮片在婚礼上会掉下来。红酒几乎总是会沾上污渍。
Furthermore, Rent the Runway's assets also arguably depreciate in terms of style. Once an outfit is déclassé, it likely can't be rented or resold for as much. Inventory is key to Rent the Runway's business: The company says it has 18,000 styles across more than 750 designers in sizes ranging from 00 to 22.
此外，Rent the Runway的资产在风格上也可以说是贬值了。一旦一套服装变得时髦起来，它很可能就不能以同样高的价格出租或转售了。库存是Rent the Runway业务的关键：该公司表示，它有来自750多名设计师的18,000种款式，尺码从00码到22码不等。
Somewhat similar businesses haven't felt the need to add filtered metrics. Consider Netflix, a company that Daniel McCarthy, assistant professor of marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School, reminds us dealt in physical DVDs, rather than streaming subscriptions, when it went public back in 2002. While its discs depreciated with each change of hands, its S-1 filing shows only unadjusted gross profits, which grew 31% from 2000 to 2001.
在某种程度上，类似的企业并不觉得有必要添加过滤后的指标。以Netflix为例，埃默里大学(Emory University)戈伊苏埃塔商学院(Goizueta Business School)营销学助理教授丹尼尔·麦卡锡(Daniel McCarthy)提醒我们，Netflix在2002年上市时，经营的是实体DVD，而不是流媒体订阅。虽然它的光盘每一次易手都会贬值，但它的S-1申报文件只显示了未经调整的毛利润，从2000年到2001年增长了31%。
By contrast, Rent the Runway is going public on the heels of a tough year, asking investors to consider what it can be, rather than what it recently has been. For the year ended Jan. 31, 2021, revenue fell nearly 39% and active subscribers by nearly 59% versus the prior year, largely because of the pandemic.
相比之下，Rent the Runway在经历了艰难的一年后即将上市，要求投资者考虑它可能是什么，而不是最近的样子。在截至2021年1月31日的一年中，收入同比下降近39%，活跃用户同比下降近59%，这在很大程度上是因为疫情。
So is this business fashion-forward or out-of-style? Founded over a decade ago, Rent the Runway has an appeal that has been relatively limited. The company had fewer than 144,000 subscribers -- both active and paused -- as of Sept 30, according to an amended S-1 filing published Monday. While Stitch Fix, a younger company that sells new clothing, boasts more than four million active clients, Rent the Runway says it has served 2.5 million customers across all its offerings in its lifetime.
那么，这项业务是时尚前卫还是落伍呢？成立于十多年前的Rent the Runway的吸引力相对有限。根据周一公布的一份修订后的S-1文件，截至9月30日，该公司的订户不到14.4万人--既有活跃的，也有暂停的。虽然Stitch Fix是一家销售新衣的较年轻公司，号称拥有400多万活跃客户，但Rent the Runway表示，它在其所有产品中都为250万客户提供了服务。
One issue could be a lack of marketing. The company says it has spent less than 10% of its total revenue on marketing since its founding, signaling mostly organic growth. It notes an unaided brand awareness of just 20% among U.S. women ages 18 to 45 with a household income of $50,000 or more. That suggests a sizable opportunity, assuming there is broad interest.
一个问题可能是缺乏营销。该公司表示，自成立以来，用于营销的支出不到总收入的10%，这表明该公司基本上实现了有机增长。报告指出，在18岁至45岁、家庭收入在5万美元或更高的美国女性中，仅有20%的女性在没有帮助的情况下获得了品牌知名度。这意味着，假设存在广泛的利益，这是一个相当大的机会。
Positively, Chief Executive Jennifer Hyman said in a LinkedIn post in late May that active subscribers were up 93% from the company's Covid-19 low in May 2020. As of Sep. 30, active subscriptions still remain down about 16% from where they ended fiscal 2019, Monday's amended prospectus showed.
积极的一面是，该公司首席执行长海曼(Jennifer Hyman)5月下旬在领英上发帖称，活跃订户比2020年5月该公司新冠肺炎的低点增长了93%。周一修改后的招股说明书显示，截至9月30日，活跃认购数量仍比2019财年末下降了约16%。
With offices opening back up, Rent the Runway, which offers everything from sweatshirts to blazers and trench coats, is likely to be a beneficiary. But the prospect of burgeoning growth could present something of a Catch-22 for the company. There are likely only so many people who crave designer fashion, but adding more reasonably priced styles risks turning off those who specifically came to the platform to "rent the runway."
随着办公室重新开放，提供从运动衫到运动夹克和风衣等各种商品的Rent the Runway很可能成为受益者。但快速增长的前景可能会让该公司陷入某种进退两难的境地。渴望设计师时尚的人可能只有这么多，但增加价格更合理的款式可能会让那些专门来这个平台“租T台”的人望而却步。
Meanwhile, investors this year haven't been universally excited about resale. Poshmark, the newly public social resale platform, is down nearly 76% from where it closed on its trading debut back in January, for example. One key difference, of course, is that Rent the Runway physically owns inventory, while Poshmark doesn't.
与此同时，投资者今年并没有普遍对转售感到兴奋。例如，新上市的社交转售平台Poshmark较1月份上市首日收盘价下跌了近76%。当然，一个关键的区别是，Rent the Runway实际拥有库存，而Poshmark则没有。
Rest assured, investors will eventually account for that.
请放心，投资者最终会对此负责的。
Write to Laura Forman at laura.forman@wsj.com
写信给劳拉·福尔曼(Laura.forman@wsj.com)
译文内容由第三方软件翻译。