Fabric and craft retail chain JOANN plans to go public, the company announced today in an S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
JOANN has grown during the pandemic amid a surge in arts and crafts among stay-at-home orders and social distancing trends. The chain added approximately 4,000 jobs during this time, according to the prospectus, and continues to expand its digital offerings and omnichannel platform.
“The industry is currently experiencing a significant acceleration for product demand in response to multiple secular themes that have been further solidified during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as heightened DIY customer behavior,” the filing stated.
The DIY trend grew in popularity as masks became a central part of people’s everyday wardrobes and consumers around the country began making and donating masks. JOANN sold mask-making supplies and also led several mask donation campaigns, including a “Masks for Schools” program and a “Make to Give” DIY campaign.
JOANN records over 69 million “addressable” customers, eight million of which were added since Feb. 1, 2020. The chain also experienced 38 percent growth in total comparable sales since May of 2020.
JOANN began as a fabrics store, but has ventured out into broader crafting products in the past few years. Still, the S-1 notes that many of its new customers first interact with JOANN when buying sewing machines and supplies. The retailer expects these customers, who are trending younger in age, to continue engaging with the store. “We estimate that a typical customer who purchases a sewing or craft technology machine will purchase an average of over $500 of our products in the year following their machine purchase,” per the filing.
Bank of America Securities and Credit Suisse will serve as JOANN’s lead book-running managers for the proposed IPO. The prospectus does not specify an IPO date or expected offering prices. The retail company would list under the symbol “JOAN” on Nasdaq.
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