Peloton’s fortunes race downhill as fitness fans return to gyms
If Peloton wants to know why the lockdown boom in home exercise was unsustainable, then Ian Rodriguez has a good answer: working out is more fun with other people.
Rodriguez, a 52-year-old teacher from Preston, Lancashire, cancelled his gym membership when the pandemic hit but couldn’t wait to get back. As many others did, he spent money on gym equipment, including a rowing machine and some weights. But then he started missing the gym classes.
“I kept fit at home throughout the lockdown, but as restrictions eased, the lack of social interaction started to get to me. I was getting to the stage where I missed going to classes at the gym. Exercising on your own, even with someone shouting at you on a screen during an online course, just isn’t the same,” he says. Rodriguez is now back at the gym “four or five times a week”.
Millions of others around the world have responded to the call of the gym instructor, leaving Peloton, the home fitness company, facing further questions about what this means for demand for its exercise bikes, treadmills and online classes when it reports its latest quarterly results on Tuesday.
The last few years have been a wild ride for the company.Peloton was one of the symbolic commercial successes of the global pandemic lockdown, along with the likes of Zoom, Netflix and Amazon. It floated in 2019 at $29 per share and its valuation approached $50bn in January 2021 as shares went over $160 at the height of lockdown restrictions. But Peloton’s fortunes have turned, and the valuation has sped downhill dramatically. Today, the company is worth as much as it was around flotation, at $8bn. Late on Friday, however, shares in Peloton surged more than 30% in after-hours trading after a report in the Wall Street
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