Hudson-based JOANN Inc. has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed initial public offering of common stock. JOANN intends to list its shares on Nasdaq under the symbol JOAN.
The filing listed the size of the offering at $100 million, but that is most likely to change as the underwriters price the deal. BofA Securities and Credit Suisse are serving as joint lead book-running managers for the proposed offering. Guggenheim Securities, Barclays, Wells Fargo Securities, Piper Sandler and William Blair will act as additional bookrunners for the proposed offering. Telsey Advisory Group will act as co-manager for the proposed offering.
JOANN was founded as the Fabric Shop in Cleveland in 1943 by German immigrants Hilda and Berthold Reich, Sigmund and Mathilda Rohrbach, and Justin and Alma Zimmerman. By 1963 the business had expanded and changed its name to Jo-Ann Fabrics.
In its filing with the SEC, JOANN indicated that the coronavirus pandemic has boosted the business, adding 8 million new customers to its marketing database. “These new customers tend to be younger and more affluent than existing customers in our database, and are large consumers of our rapidly growing sewing and craft technology categories which include machines and related supplies,” it said.
For the 39 weeks ended Oct. 31, JOANN reported net income of $174 million on sales of $1.92 billion, compared with a loss of $188 million on sales of $1.55 billion in the previous period.
