Online fashion retailer: How Mytheresa rose to stock market star

The Munich online luxury fashion retailer Mytheresa has made a successful stock market debut in New York. Who is behind the company that has grown rapidly in recent years?

Anyone who has a weakness for luxury fashion like Gucci, Prada or Valentino and doesn’t have to worry about their wallet has been going to Theresa in Munich for years. The shop, located in the old town, was opened in 1987 by fashion retailers Susanne and Christoph Botschen and has become an institution when it comes to fashion for the top ten thousand.

But Theresa is more than just a well-known shop for women’s luxury fashion. In 2006 the two founders ventured into the Internet. From the inconspicuous industrial area Aschheim, which has been known nationwide since the fall of the former stock market star Wirecard, they opened their own online shop and named it “Mytheresa.com”.

“Daring Adventure”

“Back then, it was a daring adventure to sell luxury fashion over the Internet. It was always thought that women preferred face-to-face contact and wanted to touch fabrics,” said Michael Kliger, a former management consultant at McKinsey who took over the management of Mytheresa in 2015. the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”. But contrary to all fears, it quickly became apparent that many women also had less and less time and leisure to drive into the city to the stationary trade – and preferred to choose in peace and quiet at home and have their order conveniently delivered to their door.

Mytheresa picked up speed rapidly and became the main source of income for the embassies. Sales by far exceeded the revenues of the two downtown boutiques. In addition to women’s fashion, children’s fashion was added at the beginning of 2019, and finally, a year later, fashion for men.

Sales more than quadrupled

But rapid growth costs money – and arouses desire. In 2014, the US luxury department store chain Neiman Marcus bought Mytheresa for 150 million dollars. At the same time, the company benefited more and more from the boom in online trading. From the Mytheresa central warehouse in Heimstetten near Munich, deliveries are sent all over the world – up to 8000 parcels a day.

Since 2015, sales have climbed from 100 to 450 million euros in the 2019/20 financial year, 19 percent more than in the same period of the previous year. Even the Corona crisis could not slow down the desire to buy among the now 568,000 customers. On average, they ordered goods worth 600 euros. In the six months from July to December 2020 alone, sales even grew by 30 percent to around 285 million euros.

International business

On the other hand, Neiman Marcus fared much worse. The department store operator had to file for bankruptcy and repay its debts. In order to get the money they need, the Americans have decided to part with Mytheresa and do so via the stock exchange. With success, as the numbers show.

The US depository receipts (ADS) of the Dutch holding company MYT Netherlands, which had been placed at $ 26, shot up 38 percent to $ 35.85 at the start of trading on Thursday. Mytheresa had increased the price range to 24 to 26 (previously 16 to 18) dollars just before the end of the subscription period. The company is valued at more than two billion dollars.

CFO Martin Beer justified the fact that Mytheresa did not go public in Germany but in the USA with its global orientation. In addition, one expects an increase in brand awareness in the important US market. Mytheresa currently makes around 10 percent of its sales there. The Asia-Pacific area accounts for around 25 percent and Europe for 60 percent. Only every fifth euro is earned in Germany.