Peloton ($PRIVATE:PELOTON) sells exercise equipment for the elite— people with high rises overlooking the New York City skyline and women who really Can Have It All. The company amped up its marketing campaign for the holidays, and it certainly got a lot of attention.
Despite, or maybe because of, a widely mocked viral ad in which a man buys a Peloton bike for his wife who seems to fear him, sales continue to grow and customer reviews remain positive.
Six months ago, Peloton had a massive hiring surge with the opening of its “Field Operations” division, comprising employees tasked with delivery and in-home installation. It quickly became Peloton’s most in-demand job category as the company prepared for the gift-giving season.
But it’s February, the Christmas lights are coming down, the Peloton Wives are a month into their new workout routines, and the job postings have fallen off.
This 58% decline in all job listings is likely due to the decrease in Field Operations listings. The once-dominant division has become 98% smaller since just last month. Now, Retail and Software are Peloton’s top two hiring categories. It's also worth noting the growth of the Studio Observations job category.
As we predicted almost a year ago, this restructuring indicates Peloton’s interest in becoming the “Netflix of fitness” with its own subscription-based, exercise-focused streaming service, offering over 300 new shows per week. Although there's no data on this yet, we wouldn't bet on "Peloton and Chill" as the next big trend.
Peloton will announce earnings February 5 after the market closes and analysts tracked by Zacks Investment Research are looking for a loss of EPS -$0.32 per share.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.